CHENNAI: It will be a wet Deepavali this year. The weatherman has predicted heavy rainfall in several places in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, the day the festival of lights will be celebrated, as the much-expected North East Monsoon is set to begin on Sunday. And the cyclonic storm ‘Kyant’ that is expected to turn into a stronger depression is also likely to bring isolated rains in Chennai since the cyclone is currently 570 km east of Vishakapatnam.
In a bulletin issued on Thursday, the Indian Meteorological Department said that conditions were favourable for the withdrawal of southwest monsoon following settling in of north-easterlies along the east Coast. “Commencement of north-east monsoon rains over the southern parts of peninsular India is likely around October 30,” the bulletin said, with the forecast of heavy rainfall at isolated places over north coastal Tamil Nadu on Saturday and ‘very likely’ heavy rainfall at isolated places on October 30.
IMD also forecast isolated heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu, south interior Karnataka and Kerala on October 31. Northeast monsoon brings the bulk of annual rainfall to Tamil Nadu besides other southern states.
