Cyclone Fengal: Puducherry battered by highest rainfall in 30 years

CHENNAI: Cyclonic storm Fengal which made landfall on November 30 (Saturday) recorded a whopping 48.4 cm rain today (Sunday), which was the highest 24-hour cumulative rainfall recorded in the union territory in the last 30 years, said the India Meteorological Department.

After 16 years, rainfall in Puducherry crossed the 20 cm mark in the 24-hour cumulative rainfall category. Previously, on December 1, 2004, it recorded 21.1 cm rains while it was 20.6 cm on November 28, 2008. In the year 2021, the union territory witnessed 19.2 cm of rain on February 21 and 19.4 cm of rain on November 19, as per data from the Met department.

Villupuram and Puducherry recorded the heaviest rainfall under the influence of Cyclone Fengal with the Mailam all-weather station in Villupuram registering 51 cm of rainfall from 8.30 am on November 30 to 8.30 am on December 1 (Sunday), said the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai.

Meanwhile, Cuddalore recorded 21 cm of rainfall while it was 22 cm in Tiruvannamalai. In contrast, the rainfall was much tamer at 11 cm at Meenambakkam in Chennai.

Meanwhile, the cyclone over north coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry remained stationary during the past 6 hours and lay centered at 5.30 am on Sunday over the same region. It is close to Puducherry, about 30 km north of Cuddalore, 40 km east of Villupuram and 120 km south-southwest of Chennai, the RMC said.

Places in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry & Karaikal which received extremely heavy rainfall:

(Villupuram)

Mylam 51 cm

Tindivanam 37 cm

Nemoor 35 cm

Vallam 32 cm

Semmedu 31 cm

(Puducherry)

Puducherry 49 cm

Patthukannu 45 cm

Thirukkanur 43 cm

Puducherry Town 40 cm

Bahour 32 cm