The State is all set to get moderate rainfall for one more day after which there may be a decrease in the spell for a couple of days.
Monday’s trough low pressure over the southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka weakened by Tuesday. But, many parts of the State continued to get rainfall.
Officials of the Meteorological department said a cyclonic circulation over southeast Arabian sea off south Kerala coast persisted.
Widespread rain
As moisture-laden winds are drawn towards this system and travelling through Tamil Nadu, southern parts of the State would get fairly widespread rainfall and may be heavy in one or two places. However, northern parts of the State may experience scattered rainfall. Chennai may continue to have intermittent showers.
During the past 24 hours ending at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday, Talaignayar in Nagapattinam district received the maximum rainfall of 8 cm. Rains smashed several areas of the city during Tuesday and the city recorded nearly 2 cm of rainfall up to 8.30 p.m.
S. Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said another low pressure area has formed over the Malay peninsula and adjoining Andaman sea, which is expected to intensify into a well-marked low pressure area in two days. “We are monitoring the system, and rainfall over the State can be determined depending on how the system evolves. There may be a break in rainfall for a few days,” he said.
The Meteorological department forecasts that few spells or thundershowers would occur in the city till Thursday.
The spell that extended for over a week has also led to breaching of lakes in the periphery of the city. During the early hours of Tuesday, a portion of Mukkarambakkam lake had breached leading to wastage of water. Mukkarambakkam village is located 6 km away from Periapalayam in Tiruvallur district.
G.S. Ravi, a resident of Mukkarambakkam said the weirs, which are structures to let out surplus water, were not maintained properly and this led to breach of the bund when the lake brimmed. “Several surrounding villages such as Annavaram and Nelvoi depended on the lake for their irrigation needs,” he said.
He is one of the farmers who has cultivated paddy after a year of drought and are concerned about harvest as half the resources from the lake got drained.
Officials of the Water Resources Department said the breach has been arrested and sand bags have been placed along the 10 metre stretch that was breached.
The water body has a storage capacity of 60 million cubic feet. Efforts are on to strengthen the bund.
Exam cancelled
The Chief Education Officer, Chennai has announced that pre-half yearly examinations for students of classes X, XI and XII of government schools, government-aided, schools run by the Chennai Corporation, matriculation, Anglo-Indian, schools run by the Adi Dravida Welfare Department and truncated schools stand cancelled.
This is due to schools being closed because of the rain this month and teachers not being able to complete their syllabus on time, said an official release.