Heavy overnight rainfall batters several parts of Chennai and its suburbs
The Hindu
Intense rainfall batters Chennai and surrounding areas, leading to flooding, heavy rainfall records, and potential for more storms ahead.
Several parts of Chennai and its peripheral areas were drenched by intense rainfall since Wednesday night. Overcast sky and the downpour brought in a burst of mild weather.
A very heavy rain spell battered, particularly western parts of Chennai and places like Ambattur, Avadi and Vanagaram recorded 13 cm of rainfall each during the past 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Thursday. This was the highest amount of rainfall registered in the State.
Heavy rain lashed places like Anna Nagar (12 cm), Thiruvalangadu in Tiruvallur district (11 cm) and Manali (10 cm) in the city too. The weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam recorded 7.4 cm and 7.1 cm of rainfall.
Overnight thunderstorms that had dumped heavy rainfall within a few hours had submerged many subways and road under bridges like the one in Sekkadu. The downpour had also led to considerable inflow into city’s drinking water sources, particularly Red Hills and Chembarambakkam reservoirs that received an inflow 700 cubic feet per second of water (cusecs) and 350 cusecs respectively.
The Regional Meteorological Centre has said the Southwest monsoon in its transition phase would trigger wind convergence and push rainclouds over the State. S.Balachandran, Additional Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, said the weather system has moved northwards, and the confluence of northwesterly and southwesterly winds has influenced thunderstorms and intense rainfall. Rain cells developed have a potential of dumping heavy spells of rainfall within a short span in a particular area like in Avadi and Ambattur.
Nungambakkam received a heavy spell of rainfall within one hour. Similar weather trend may continue till the month end. Whenever a weather system moves towards central part of the country, there would be such rainfall episodes in the State, he said. Rainfall of light to moderate intensity may lash parts of Chennai till the weekend.
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