The southern metropolis of Chennai, familiar playground for the North-East monsoon, opened itself up to the annual jamboree overnight into this (Thursday) morning to heavy rain spells punctuated occasionally by loud thunder rolls and lightning, keeping some keen weather-enthusiast residents awake.
No one was complaining apparently, as was clear from the way jubilant Chennaiites took to Twitter. Long-time weather blogger @ChennaiRains said that ‘power went off for nearly one hour, was just enjoying the sound of rains with thunder giving a bit of bass effect around. Welcome North-East monsoon. Moderate spells to continue as the day breaks. Now time to enjoy kaapi with rains.”
Also read: Rain, thunderstorms as N-E monsoon arrives
Weather bloggers on cloud nine
Another blogger and enthusiast @JW_Chennai could not agree more, saying ‘insane pounding of parts of Chennai with lots of scary thunders. 100 mm crossed in Mylapore (private RG). More rains on the way.” “North-East monsoon onset with a bang,” the blogger added.
This Twitter handle also gave out night rain amounts till 3.30 am as Mylapore 100 mm, Palavakkam 80 mm, Chepauk 60 mm and Royapettah 50 mm. In a reply tweet, @Athmaraman2 said, “Looks a good beginning. Mylapore must have crossed 150 mm. Rains going on strong still.”
IMD sees more rain for city
Meanwhile, the Chennai Met Office (Regional Office of the India Meteorological Department) said in an outlook for today (Thursday) that light to moderate rain/thundershower is likely to occur at a few places over South Tamil Nadu and at isolated places over North Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal areas.
As for Chennai, the IMD said that it would be overcast until 11.30 am with possibility of thunderstorms with moderate to heavy rain. Hourly forecast from private forecaster Skymet Weather predicted cloudy conditions with high humidity levels into the afternoon and evening, making for muggy weather.