Tamil Nadu’s woes with the North-East monsoon may have only begun as circulations/low-pressure areas march in as if from an assembly line in the South-East Bay of Bengal, with India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting a fresh one even as the State prepares to handle an incoming potential depression.
The fresh ‘low’ may form over the South Andaman Sea and may move West-North-West just as the predecessor (current well-marked ‘low’ ) and, significantly, become more marked during the subsequent 48 hours, again like its predecessor. Early predictions guide the fresh ‘low’ towards the South Andhra Pradesh coast.
Brutal spell along coast
Satellite maps in the morning showed what looked like a brutal spell being unleashed along the coast right from South Andhra Pradesh to Chennai, Puducherry to Kaveripattinam and adjoining interiors bounded by Tirupathi, Chittoor, Kolar Gold Mines and Tiruvannamalai across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Weather bloggers tweeted about extremely intense clouds being pushed towards the coast from the South-East, where the depression is brewing. Tuesday’s ‘low’ has already intensified a round to become ‘well-marked’ and the IMD expects it to become a depression later this evening/night and travel towards North Coastal Tamil Nadu by tomorrow (Wednesday).
Weather outlook for today
The Chennai Meteorological Centre said that the city may remain overcast with one or two spells of rain, at times heavy, until 2.20 pm this afternoon. Thunderstorms with heavy to very heavy rain is forecast over Chennai, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Thenkasi, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts.
Thunderstorms with heavy rain is also likely to occur at a few places over the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Vellore, Ranipettai, Tirupattur, Tiruvannamalai, Thoothukudi, Kallakurichi districts and the Karaikal area.
Widespread rain for five days
Fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall is predicted over Kerala, South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu during the next five days. Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy falls is likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal today and tomorrow and over south Coastal Andhra Pradesh tomorrow.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places is also likely over Kerala and Mahe on both days; over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh today; and over Rayalaseema today and tomorrow, the IMD said.
High winds warned of
Squally winds with speed reaching 40-50 km/hr gusting to 60 km/hr may prevail over the South-East Bay today; 45-55 km/hr gusting to 65 km/hr over South-West and adjoining West-Central Bay along and off Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh coasts today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday).
Fishermen are advised not to venture into the South-East, South-West and adjoining West-Central Bay and along and off the Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh coasts during the two days.