More rain likely over next 2 days

Chennai: Heavy rains lashed the city and its suburbs late on Wednesday night, but Thursday saw a dip in rainfall as the marked low pressure weakened over southwest Bay of Bengal. The Met Department said the rain will continue over the next two days.

The Met’s deputy director S Balachandran told press persons on Thursday that the last 24 hours saw widespread rains in the northern districts, including Chennai and its suburbs and moderate rainfall in southern coastal districts.

The low pressure will cause heavy to very heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, he said, adding that moderate rain or thundershowers were likely to occur in the area. “Heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over the northern districts and Puducherry during the next 48 hours,”he said.

Weather bloggers in the city said Wednesday was the wettest day of the year for Chennai. Pradeep John, known as Tamil Nadu Weatherman, said in a Facebook post - pull effect rains will continue before heading for a big break.

“With Thursday’s rain of 100 mm, Chennai has got 350 mm rain of the total 850 mm rainfall required for the season. Had the clouds moved in yesterday morning all the places would have got close to 200 mm. This Northeastern monsoon will be insufficient for the total amount of rain required,”he said.

S Ramachandran, an Astro-meteorologist says that the rainfall for the Kanchipuram-Thiruvallur and Chennai region will be deficient this year. “However, we will be able to catch up as it will rain from the last week of November to the third week of December. The NEM will end very close to normal, close to -19 per cent,”he said.