CHENNAI/NAGAPATTINAM : She began her journey with great promise - drinking water for Chennai and saving samba crops – and struck fear in equal measure. But after what was left of Nada, the second cyclone of this monsoon, made landfall around 4-5 am on Friday along the shores of Nagapattinam and Karaikal, it weakened further and produced a fraction of the rains it was expected to deliver.
Mahabalipuram, which is about 60 km from Chennai, received one of the highest rainfalls – close to 11 cm. The sun shone on Chennai for most part of the day until the rains began around 4 pm. The city received just about 6 mm of rainfall during the day.
While Nada kissed the coast, fishermen in Nagapattinam district saw no resemblance to the arrival of a cyclone. For, it had already weakened into a low pressure. By and by, it moved over to interior Tamil Nadu.
Farmers understandably threw up their hands in despair. “Let’s say we (farmers) were earlier in a comatose stage. The rainfall produced by Nada has barely managed to open our eyes,” quipped Cauvery Dhanapalan, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Protection Association.
The weathermen said the current low pressure area might continue to give spells of rainfall at least for the next two days across the State and Kerala.
As things stand, the State has received just 115 mm rain so far. The normal rainfall for this period is 361 mm.
While Nada failed, the possibility of another cyclone was building up in the Bay of Bengal. Speaking to Express, S Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said an upper air cyclonic circulation is currently over Malay Peninsula (between Malaysia and Thailand).
“A low pressure area is very likely to develop over South Andaman sea during next 24 hours. It is very likely to concentrate into a depression in the subsequent period,” he said. While Met officials said it was premature to comment on its possible influence, Tamil Nadu is keeping its fingers crossed.