Heavy rainfall: Four Tamil Nadu districts to remain on red alert for two more days

CHENNAI: As heavy rain battered parts of the state given the cyclonic circulation prevailing over the Bay of Bengal, the meteorological department has predicted extremely heavy rainfall in four districts of Tamil Nadu for the next two days.

As per the weather update, many areas in the Western Ghats and the interior districts may receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in the coming days. The weather officials stated that a low-pressure area expected to form over the Bay of Bengal on May 22 may bring heavy rain.

A cyclonic circulation over south interior Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states may persist because of the influence of two systems prevailing over the sea. A trough from Marathwada to Tamil Nadu across Karnataka at 0.9 km above mean sea level has merged with another trough from Madhya Maharashtra to south Tamil Nadu across Interior Karnataka at 0.9 km above mean sea level.

Heavy downpours occurred over several districts in the last two days and are likely to last in Kanyakumari, Theni, Tirunelveli, and Tenkasi districts. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has issued a red alert for four districts for the next two days.

Heavy to very heavy rain is expected at isolated places over Virudhunagar, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, and Dindigul districts. As many as 13 districts of Tamil Nadu - Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Sivaganga, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Trichy and Pudukkottai are expected to receive heavy rain and a yellow alert issued for the same. The rest of the state might receive light to moderate rain along with the thunderstorm activity and speed reaching 30 km/h to 40 km/h for the next three days. The Tiruvannamalai district recorded the highest rainfall with 12 cm in the last 24 hours. Followed by, Kanyakumari recorded 10 cm, Tirupathur 9 cm, Nilgiris and Coimbatore 6 cm of rainfall each.

The southwest monsoon won’t trigger intense rainfall activity in Tamil Nadu, rather the state will get rain only after the onset of SWM in Kerala, explained a senior official of RMC.

Following the southwest monsoon alert over Kerala on May 31, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPH) on Sunday instructed the district health officers of Tamil Nadu to carry out preparatory works at the health centres before the monsoon.