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Vanakkam! What an overnight session into Thursday morning, Chennai and Tamil Nadu!
An armada of heavy-duty thunderstorms packing dumper clouds invaded parts of the city, at times venturing deeper into the interior, and emptied their contents in a pre-dawn strike prompting weather bloggers and social media to air their concerns on the administration’s state of preparedness in dealing with sudden downpours.
The precipitation, associated with the active phase of the North-East monsoon, beat most forecasts for Thursday morning.
Chennai had cleared up by 7.50 am but thunderstorms were rolling up just to its North even as it was raining heavily in the interior areas, including in Arcot, Vellore, Gudiyatham, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi, Attur, Salem, Nagapattinam. One report said that schools have been ordered closed for the day in Kancheepuram.
The Chennai Met Office said that it would be a generally cloudy day for Chennai today (Thursday) with light to moderate rain forecast in some areas. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 31 and 25 degrees Celsius, respectively.
People won't find it easy to walk into this branch of Canara Bank today. Photo: Bijoy Ghosh
The outlook for the other major cities of Tamil Nadu, and for Puducherry, suggests generally cloudy conditions with a raised probability of thunderstorms to scattered thunderstorms into the night as well. The temperature may remain range-bound between a high of 30 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius. Winds will be northerly to north-easterly to easterly.
The downpour led to some waterlogging on Fourth Seaward Road in Valmiki Nagar. Photo: Bijoy Ghosh
What international forecasters see
International forecasters, however, believe thunderstorms could hit Chennai and its neighbourhood at will today (Thursday), raising the probability of rainfall to an elevated 80 per cent into the night as the metropolis as well as Tamil Nadu and Puducherry make some gains under the benign watch of active easterly wave conditions.
The hit or miss pattern of thunderstorms should be scattered in the afternoon as suitably easterly to north-easterly winds work up a steady pace of 15-25 km/hr with maximum temperatures not sneaking past the 30 degrees Celsius-mark.
Clouds covered the coast North from Chennai to Nellore and Kavali in South Coastal Andhra Pradesh in the morning. Scattered thunderstorms into the evening may become more widespread later into the night over the city. Winds will be north-easterly with a temperature low of 26 degrees Celsius. An almost similar pattern should be seen on Friday morning as well.
Slight delay in flights
It was drizzling at the Chennai International Airport (MAA/VOMM) at 7 am with temperature at 25 degrees Celsius under variable wind conditions. A live flight map showed thunderstorms stringing the coast all the way from the South of Chennai to Ramanathapuram and Dhanushkodi and enveloping the adjoining interior.
Current disruptions spoke about an average delay of 14 minutes in arrivals and 25 minutes in departures (both indicating reducing tendency). Meanwhile, active easterly wave conditions over the South Peninsula will continue to bring scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls very likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal until tomorrow (Friday).
IMD outlook till the weekend
The national weather outlook by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi, gives out the indicative weather pattern for the region (including the states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Karnataka) as follows:
Today (Thursday): Thunderstorms accompanied with lightning at isolated places over Kerala, Mahe and Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal.
Friday (tomorrow): Heavy rainfall very likely at isolated places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning very likely at isolated places over Kerala, Mahe, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal.
Saturday: Heavy rainfall likely at isolated places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala and Mahe. Fairly widespread for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Sunday: Heavy Rainfall likely at isolated places over Tamilnadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala and Mahe, Fairly widespread rain for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Rainfall logs
The Chennai Met Office reported that the following stations received rainfall above 1 cm yesterday (Wednesday). Please note, the data for the overnight session till this morning, which will have much higher figures, has not yet been made available:
Cuddalore and Cuddalore Collectorate Office-6 cm; Puducherry-4 cm; Kelambakkam, Mandapam, Tiruchendur, and Maduranthagam-3 cm; Uthiramerur, Mahabalipuram, Periya Kalapet, Kancheepuram, Rameswaram, and Chengalpattu-2 cm; and Panruti, Sirkali, Satyabama University, Cheyyur, Ulundurpet, Vedaranyam, Tambaram, Trangambadi, Vanur, Nagapattinam, Melalathur, Satankulam, Vandavasi, Vellore, Chengam, and Kallakurichi-1 cm each.
Chennai’s bloggers and Twitterati rejoiced as the good times returned to the city and to the larger Tamil Nadu and Puducherry:
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