Several areas in Chennai experience rain; likely to continue

CHENNAI: After dry weather prevailed in Chennai, the city witnessed a sudden spell of rain on Saturday evening due to depression formed over the Bay of Bengal.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) forecasts light to moderate rain is likely to continue for Chennai and several districts of Tamil Nadu for the next few hours.

Several areas including Tondiarpet, Royapettah, Nungambakkam, Anna Nagar and Thiruvottiyur experienced a sharp spell of rain and caused traffic jams in some areas.

The depression over southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal recurved gradually west-southwestwards and lay centered on Saturday over the same region. It is about 400 km eastnortheast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 470 km east of Nagappattinam (Tamil Nadu) and 500 km eastsoutheast of Chennai.

The system is likely to move further westsouthwestwards and reach near Sri Lanka coast by December 25. Thereafter, it would continue to move westsouthwestwards across Sri Lanka and reach Comorin Area and neighbourhood on Monday.

Under its influence, several districts of Tamil Nadu - Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Kanchipuram, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Thenkasi and Tirunelveli is likely to get light to moderate rain for the next few hours, as per RMC bulletin.

The weather department predicted heavy rain for Theni, Tenkasi, Virudhunagar, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Pudukottai, and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu for the next 48 hours.