CHENNAI: After an extended dry spell, Chennai will experience thunderstorm and rainfall activity over the entire week. On Sunday evening, several parts of the city received sharp spells of rain and this pattern of late evening and early morning rain is likely to continue.
Met officials attributed the change in weather to the cyclonic circulation that is concentrated over East Central Bay of Bengal. A trough is running from this circulation to North Tamil Nadu. Under its influence, north Tamil Nadu districts, including Chennai, are expected to get better convergence and increased rainfall activity.
S Balachandran, Deputy director-general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre, told Express that the upper air cyclonic circulation will cause spike in thunderstorm and rainfall activity in north and interior Tamil Nadu. “Chennai is likely to get rain this whole week,” he said.
For past one week, districts like Virudhunagar, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Namakkal have been receiving rain and now the rain is expected to spread to other districts as well.
Weather blogger Pradeep John said a rare cyclone is brewing in the Bay, but it will not affect Tamil Nadu coast as it will be going to Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh. “The rainfall activity in the State is convective.”
According to some Twitter users, Puzhal (Redhills) got hailstorms on Sunday. Puzhal also received the highest rainfall of 54 mm. Nungambakkam received 8 mm of rainfall.
Overall, the rainfall recorded in last 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Sunday shows Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district receiving the highest rainfall of 13 cm.