Depression in Bay dampens festival shopping; rain forecast for 2 days

S Balachandran, director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre, RMC, said that they were monitoring the satellite imagery. “We cannot predict the onset of north-east monsoon. As of now, the low pressure will become a depression during the next 24 hours,” he said. “As far as rainfall is concerned, there will be light showers in Chennai city for the next two days, while the western and delta pockets will experience moderate to heavy rains,” he said and added that the RMC would announce the onset of northeast monsoon on time. 

Officials also said that the south-west monsoon has withdrawn from some parts of north and west Bay of Bengal and thunderstorms activity would slow down for the next two days in the state. According to them, though the south-west monsoon has moved out partly, it is vigorous over north interior Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. 

On Monday, the city experienced mild showers to moderate rains. Thamaraipakkam in Tiruvallur district received 3 cm rainfall, while Perundurai in Erode district received 1 cm in the last 24 hours. 

Apart from the festival rush, the rains added to traffic woes on Monday with vehicles stuck at several bottlenecks across the city. In particular, all the roads leading to Kathipara flyover came to a near standstill as buses, cars and two-wheelers had to move at a snail’s pace. Also, the traffic on Arcot Road slowed to a crawl since evening. Traffic was chaotic on Santhome High Road as well as Anna Nagar.