Cyclone Mandous to bring heavy rains over T.N. today before it hits coast around midnight

The cyclone is expected to make landfall around Mamallapuram at about midnight on Friday; the weather warning for Saturday has been downgraded from red, to orange and yellow; many parts of the State are already receiving heavy rains

Severe cyclonic storm Mandous is set to weaken into a cyclone, as it heads towards the north Tamil Nadu coast, and makes landfall around Mamallapuram between midnight on Friday and the early hours of Saturday.

Many coastal and delta districts began to receive moderate rains from Thursday night, and intense rains are picking up pace in the north coastal areas particularly around Chennai and its surrounding districts.

Some of the weather stations in TN that received moderate to heavy rains till 5.30 am on Friday are: Nungambakkam 5.3 cm; Meenambakkam 5 cm; Ennore port 3 cm; Madhavaram 6 cm; YMCA Nandanam 5.4 cm; Puzhal 4.4 cm; Taramani 4 cm; MRC Nagar 3 cm; Villivakkam 3.7 cm; Pamban 2.5 cm; Nagappattinam 2.2 cm; Karaikal 1.8 cm and Puducherry 1 cm.

As the severe cyclonic storm is parked close to the north TN coast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has maintained its red colour coded warning for Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu and Villupuram on Friday.

While isolated heavy to very heavy rains may lash over districts in the north, including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Ranipet, Cuddalore and Tirupattur, isolated heavy rains are possible over 16 other districts, such as Madurai, Karur and delta districts.

The weather warning has been downgraded to orange and yellow colour codes on Saturday. Light to moderate rains may occur at most places on Saturday.

However, north TN may have chances of intense rains in one or two places.