CHENNAI: As the Northeast monsoon enters the active phase in Chennai, many parts of the city received light-to-heavy rainfall on Wednesday. They city was drenched after a short break from the rains for a couple of days.
According to official sources, light-to-moderate rainfall may be witnessed in many places in the State till Saturday due to cyclonic circulation over the Southwest Bay of Bengal off the Tamil Nadu coast. The circulation, however, is moving westwards as easterly winds were strengthened in the presence of weather system, said S Balachandran, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Chennai.
Officials said thunderstorms with moderate rain are likely to occur at many places over the coastal districts. Light to moderate rainfall is likely to occur at the coast of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal on Thursday. Heavy showers accompanied with thunder is expected in many places from Friday.
CMRL installs anemometers to measure wind speeds
Chennai: As part of monsoon preparedness, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has installed anemometers (device used to measure wind speed and direction) at strategic locations, such as, CMRL headquarters building in Koyambedu and Alandur Metro Station to get wind updates on regular basis. A statement from CMRL said, anemometers are high precision instruments, working on the mechanism of cups rotating in accordance with flow of wind and measure the speed by generating electrical and electronic data.
The data is monitored and integrated in the electronic SCADA system to give audio and visual alarms on real-time basis. “As metro trains operate across the corridors at a height of 15-24 metres from the road, wind is one of the critical factors that affect movement of trains,” the statement said. It added that if the wind speed is more than 70 km/hr, the speed of the train is restricted to 40 km/hr and the train operator is given instructions to stay alert. Apart from this, the CMRL has also asked its train operators to make a checklist of monsoon protocols.