Comments
Cloudy to partly cloudy conditions are being forecast for Chennai for today (Monday) with light rain probable in some areas of the city. Similar conditions are likely over Puducherry and the major cities of Salem, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. At around 8.30 am today, light showers were reported from Pannur, Sunguvarchatram, Molachur, Araneri, Thenneri, Kattavakkam, Walajabad, Punnapakkam, Tamaraipakkam, Thennangur, Vandavasi, Thellar, Desur, Gingee and Murarbad while a heavier thunderstorm lashed Thandalam. Stations receiving moderate to heavy rainfall (in cm) yesterday (Saturday) included Nadhiyar Head -9; Kodumudi and Tiruchendur-6 each; Harur and Vallam-5 each; Panchapatti, Coonoor PTO, Aravakurichi and Dharapuram-4 cm; Ramanathapuram, Mulanur, Tirukattupalli, Sattur, Vedasandur, Thamaraipakkam, Karur, Tiruchirappalli Airport, Kangeyam, Satankulam, Ponneri, Coonoor, Tirukoilur, Tiruvaiyaru, Sankarankoil, Kodaikanal, and Marungapuri-3 each; and a number of centres, 2 cm and 1 cm each.
The clouds seen over the Chennai sky on Monday morning suggest some more days of rain. The IMD has forecast heavy rain in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.
Thunderstorms not ruled out still
Some of the cities in Tamil Nadu may witness rain/showers of various amounts tomorrow (Tuesday) and even the day after (Wednesday), international model forecasts said. The Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, under the India Meteorological Department (IMD), also said that heavy rain is likely in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu tomorrow (Tuesday) to the accompaniment of thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places. Satellite maps showed the possibility of colder winds from the Deccan and farther from Central India, and north-easterlies from the Bay of Bengal converging along the coast in which the warm, moist winds from the seas are forced to rise, cool and condense as thundershowers. The North-East monsoon may have likely ended, but signature thunderstorms may continue to lash isolated areas of Tamil Nadu this week and even the next, according to several model projections. The national weather forecast by the IMD, New Delhi, also suggested that isolated rainfall is likely over the South-East Peninsula (mainly Tamil Nadu) and the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. After all, the seas around Sri Lanka, including the South-West Bay of Bengal and Equatorial Indian Ocean and the Lakshadweep Sea, will continue to be beehives of thunderstorm activity during the rest of this week, though gradually weakening in intensity.
View of high rise buildings in Cuffe Parade engulf in thick smog around noon in South Mumbai on Monday.
In the West, meanwhile, several places including Mumbai were engulfed by a winter haze on Monday. Mumbai's skyline was barely visible even in the afternoon.
Cold, dense fog in North India
Meanwhile in the North of the country, rain and thundershower activity has quietened down with the moving away of an active western disturbance. A follow-up incoming western disturbance arriving from across the international border in the next couple of days is expected to be a feeble one and may at best trigger snow along the hills of the region. The cooler Arctic air that fills the region in the wake of the earlier disturbance will cause the lingering moisture to cool and settle as fog to dense fog conditions over Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, South Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. The lowest temperature recorded yesterday (Sunday) in the plains was 5.5 degree Celsius at Sikar and Pilani (East Rajasthan). The areas mentioned above also bear the footprint of the western disturbance as it passed across the region from the West to the East over the past two or three days, when it either rained over the plains or snowed in the hills. The series of western disturbances will continue to modulate the winter conditions in this manner during the rest of this month and the two months that follow (January and February). But the one month from mid-December to mid-January is most critical due to the peak fog season when air, rail and road traffic over North and North-West India get disrupted.
Let us see how various Twitter handles assess the weather conditions for the day.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.