Most parts of the state are expected to receive normal rains in the ensuing South West monsoon set to start in a couple of days. Only five districts are predicted to get excess rains this season.
Representative Image (PTI)
Chennai:
From the Western region, Krishnagiri would receive 420 mm of rainfall as against its normal 375 mm and Tirupur 180 mm as against its normal 151 mm.
From the southern region, Thoothukudi would receive 80 mm as against its normal 67 mm and Tirunelveli 150 mm as against its normal 128 mm. In the Delta region, only Tiruvarur district may get surplus downpour of 340 mm as against its normal 302 mm.
However, the Delta farmers may have got a reason to rejoice as none of the Delta districts and also, other parts of the state may face deficit rains.
“Farmers from Delta districts can continue their regular cropping and cultivation pattern undisturbed as they may get normal rainfall from this South West Monsoon,” said Dr SP Ramanathan, head of the Agro Climate Research Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).
Normal rainfall is expected in districts like Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Erode, Kancheepuram, Kanniyakumari, Karur, Madurai, Nagapattinam, Namakkal, Perambalur, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, Theni, Tiruvallur, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruvannamalai, The Nilgiris, Vellore, Villupuram and Virudhunagar.
While these districts have been forecast with a deviation of plus or minus ten per cent from long period average rainfall, which is considered to be normal, some districts like Chennai with 440 mm, Cuddalore with 360 mm and Pudukottai with 330 mm are forecast with exactly the same long term mean rainfall. “Last year too, Tamil Nadu received a normal South West Monsoon,” added Ramanathan.
South West monsoon season rainfall forecast has been developed based on the Southern Oscillation Index and Sea Surface Temperature values of Pacific and Indian oceans by using Australian Rainman International V.4.3. Software at Agro Climate Research Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and the prediction had a 60 per cent probability level.
15 houses damaged in heavy downpour at Kumari
Heavy rains in various parts of Kanniyakumari district since Saturday evening left 13 houses partly damaged and two in full. But fortunately no casualty has been reported, sources said.
The house damages were reported in taluks of Agastheeswaram, Kalkulam, Thiruvattar, Vilavancode and Killiyoor. Moreover, the torrential rains have left some houses in low lying areas at Killiyoor inundated, but later it got drained out. Officials from inter zonal departments are on alert to monitor the rain situation in each of the six taluks. Besides, six teams comprising 124 personnel have also been monitoring the situation in the district, which has 12 evacuation centres ready in place to accommodate the needy and render assistance.
The pre-monsoon showers in catchment areas led to increase in water level in dams. As for Pechiparai dam, water level stood at 43.76 feet against its maximum capacity of 48 ft and the dam had an inflow of 1,929 cusecs and outflow of 1,281 cusecs, sources said.
Over the last twenty four hours until 8 a.m., on Sunday, Kuzhithurai recorded the maximum amount of rainfall with 105 mm. Perunchani received 78.2 mm, Puthen dam-77.6 mm, Mylaudy -70.2 mm, Kalial -70 mm, Chittar –I-68.6 mm, Pechiparai -52 mm and Nagercoil -50 mm, sources said. During rains last week, around 39 hectares of banana fields were damaged in various taluks except Thiruvattar, sources added.
Thunderstorm, rains for 2 days in Ghats, south
The Regional Meteorological Center said that thunderstorm with heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places in Southern districts of the state for the next two days.
“A depression has formed over the east-central Bay of Bengal, it is very likely to move northwestwards and intensify into a cyclonic storm by Monday and further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the subsequent 24 hours. It would continue to move northwestwards, and reach Northwest Bay of Bengal near West Bengal and Odisha coasts by May 26,” said N Puviarasan, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, RMC.
He added that for the next two days Kanniyakumari will witness heavy rainfall and Western Ghat districts, Salem, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tirupattur, Vellore, Ranipet will experience thunderstorms with moderate rain.
Dry weather is likely to prevail over the rest of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal.
As far as Chennai is concerned, it may experience a partly cloudy sky and light showers in some areas for 48 hours. The maximum temperatures recorded at Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam are 34.6 degrees Celsius and 34.2 degrees Celsius respectively. The minimum temperature was 27.9 degrees Celsius and 26.9 degrees Celsius respectively.
Meanwhile, the chief amount of rainfall was recorded at Krishnagiri district with 15 cm. Kanniyakumari recorded 11 cm, Erode 9 cm, Salem and The Nilgris recorded 5 cm of rainfall each.
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