CHENNAI: After nearly five months, most parts of city’s outskirts witnessed some rainfall on Thursday bringing relief from the scorching heat. The temperature dropped 10 degrees post 3 pm. Meanwhile, Nungambakkam weather station did not record any rain. S Balachandran, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, said “For the next two days the city will get light to moderate rain in brief spells. It will be scattered rainfall.”
To a query, he said the last active rainfall spell was in January. “Usually, we get some rain in March and April, but this year we did not.”He said the change in weather condition was due to advancement of Southwest monsoon.
“The enhanced monsoon wind coupled with a low-pressure area that formed over northeast Bay of Bengal are pushing clouds into South Peninsular. Also, there is a wind sheer (wind velocity variation) over Madras latitude. All these combined may bring some rain to Chennai and neighbouring districts.”
In the bulletin, the department said conditions are more favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Tamil Nadu in the next 72 hours.
Weather blogger Pradeep John said Chennai can very well say goodbye to heat wave conditions. The city may expect 2-3 rainy days in next one week. “Cauvery catchment should get good rain so will The Nilgiris and Valparai regions.”
Metro Water officials told Express, “We hope the city gets as much rain as possible. But the fact is that Chennai had been experiencing heat wave for so many days and ground condition being bone dry, these rains are just not good enough.”