Chennaiites witness heavy rain; likely to continue for next few hours

CHENNAI: Chennai and its neighboring areas experience a heavy downpour on Wednesday. Water logging-led to traffic congestion in some areas. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) stated that the rain is likely to continue for the next few hours.

Several areas, including Nungambakkam, T Nagar, Guindy, KK Nagar, Vadapalani, Anna Nagar, Koyambedu, Thoraipakkam, Sholinganallur and Mugappair witnessed moderate to heavy rainfall along with thunderstorm activity for the last few hours.

Motorists struggle to commute due to the ongoing stormwater drain works across the city. Though Chennai is yet to witness an intense spell, many areas have already flooded.

As per the RMC bulletin, Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Ranipet are likely to receive moderate rain with lightning and thunderstorms. And intense showers are expected at one or two places in these districts of Tamil Nadu during the next three hours.

A weather blogger commented that an intense spell of rain was happening in a few Western parts of Chennai and suburbs. Thunderstorms were expected to gradually move towards the coast.

Due to atmospheric downward circulation prevailing over the Andhra coast, at least 10 districts - Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore, and Kallakurichi is likely to experience heavy rain for the next 48 hours.

During the last 24 hours, the highest amount of rainfall recorded in Nagapattinam was 6 cm, followed by Tiruvallur and Madurai 4 cm each, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, and Thoothukudi received 3 cm of rainfall each.