Severe Cyclone Gaja is nearing the coast and is all set to hit South Tamil Nadu tonight. However, the tropical storm would spare Chennai this time, but the city would certainly see rains picking up the pace.
The city has been witnessing cloudy sky with light rains making appearance since last night. At present, Gaja is centered near latitude 11.2°N and longitude 82°E, about 230 km southeast of Chennai and 180 km east-northeast of Nagapattinam. Tracking west-southwestwards, the severe cyclonic storm would cross Tamil Nadu coast between Pamban and Cuddalore, near Nagapattinam as a Cyclonic Storm only.
According to Skymet Weather, wind speed would pick up pace and would be around 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph at the time of landfall. Thus, we can expect heavy to extremely heavy rainfall over southern districts, but northern parts would see light to moderate showers only.
As per weathermen, the landfall is too south of Chennai to give any significant rainfall over the city. The state capital would escape the fury of the storm and would settle with light to moderate rain with few intense spells over many parts of the city for next 24 to 48 hours.
There are chances of water-logging at some parts of the city. However, there’s no need to worry as the chances of heavy rains have been completely ruled out. However, rains over Chennai will gradually start reducing thereafter but isolated light rains are expected to continue.
Talking about temperatures, significant fall in day temperatures is expected around November 17.
Chennai will have to wait for another 4-5 days for some heavy spells. Weather models are indicating formation of a low pressure area in Bay of Bengal that would eventually head to Tamil Nadu. It would be during this time i.e. around November 21 and 22, when Chennai is likely to record moderate to heavy rains.
Image Credits –Wikipedia
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather
