Chennai likely to get intermittent spells of rain till Sunday

TN coast's Bay of Bengal trough may trigger widespread rain over the weekend. Some districts may receive very high intensity rain on Saturday. IMD issued an orange warning for govt. authorities to be prepared. 13 districts may get heavy rain up to 11.5 cm on Saturday. Light to moderate rain in many places, with Chidarambaram receiving 8 cm. Intermittent moderate rain with thunderstorms & lightning in Chennai till Sunday. Monsoon rain in deficit by 40%, some districts over 70%.

A trough over the Bay of Bengal off the Tamil Nadu coast may trigger widespread rain over the State during the weekend. Some south coastal districts and those in western ghat areas may receive rain of very high intensity on Saturday. The heavy rain may continue till Monday.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai has forecast that though the current rain spell would last till November 7, the intensity would reduce gradually. The IMD has issued an orange colour-coded warning directing the government authorities to be on alert and prepared for very heavy rain in some districts on Saturday.

The trough in easterlies over southwest and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal off the TN coast would influence rain up to very high intensity (11.5 cm to 20.4 cm) in districts including Coimbatore, Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram on Saturday.

One or two places in nearly 13 districts, including delta districts, have chances of heavy rain up to 11.5 cm on Saturday. The easterly wave trough would cause light to moderate rainfall at most places on Saturday. The rain would become fairly widespread from Sunday and cover relatively fewer places.

During the past 24 hours, many places in south TN and some weather stations in northern parts received considerable rain with Chidarambaram receiving 8 cm, the highest amount in the State for the day. On Friday, Meenambakkam received 6.3 cm of heavy rainfall between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Many other places like Madurai, Vellore, Thanjavur, Taramani, Villivakkam and Pallikaranai in Chennai got light to moderate rain.

S. Balachandran, Additional Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, said there may be enhanced monsoon activity from Saturday. However, rain would be intermittent, and it can be sunny during the day due to such a feeble weather system. Rain would be sporadic over coastal districts too as there is no strong weather disturbance.

Chennai may get intermittent spells of moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning till Sunday. Rainfall may be heavy at times in some localities. Short bursts of rain on Friday had led to waterlogging in some areas of the city.