Chennai received moderate to heavy showers, across the city and suburbs, yesterday. The airport observatory, Meenambakkam recorded 60mm and the regional observatory Nungambakkam registered 35mm rainfall in 24 hours. Airport observatory has clocked nearly 100 mm rainfall in the past 3 days. More heavy showers are likely today and moderate rainfall for the subsequent 48 hours. The city has a normal rainfall of 58.8mm for June and both the observatories have surpassed this figure. Meenambakkam may register double the monthly normal in another 48 hours.
The state of Tamil Nadu lies in the rain shadow area during the monsoon season. Capital city Chennai does not receive heavy bouts around this time and these are more frequent in the northeast monsoon, more so in November. During active southwest monsoon conditions over the country, the city of Chennai gets only light rainfall. On the contrary, when the monsoon goes weak or go into ‘break’, the capital city gets good showers.
Presently, a cyclonic circulation is marked South Telangana and the adjoining Karnataka region. A trough is extending up to South Tamil Nadu, across Andhra Pradesh. A Strong southwesterly stream in the lower levels raging across the Tamil Nadu coast is likely to trigger intense showers. The capital city is also likely to have moderate rains, interspersed with a spell of heavy rain today. As the circulation becomes a little less marked tomorrow, the intensity and spread of rainfall will decrease. Still, light to moderate showers will continue for the subsequent 72 hours.
