Yellow alert for Chennai and neighbouring districts

CHENNAI: After dry weather prevailed for the past few days, Chennai and its neighbouring districts witnessed its first summer rain for this year on Friday due to wind convergence over the sea. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) issued yellow alert for Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, and Chengalpattu predicting heavy rain for the next two days.

On Friday, rain lashed several areas in the city, including Ekkaduthangal, Tondiarpet, Arumbakkam, Egmore, Meenambakkam and Tambaram along with thunderstorm activity.

Also, a few areas such as Velachery, and Thoraipakkam witnessed hailstorms on Friday.

The sudden shower led to water logging, and commuters found it difficult due to traffic congestion.

The trough from south Tamil Nadu to north Konkan is seen as a trough/wind discontinuity from interior Tamil Nadu to central Madhya Pradesh across Rayalaseema, Telangana and Vidarbha at 0.9 km above mean sea level. So, western ghats, north interior districts, including Erode, Krishnagiri, Tirupattur, and coastal districts of Tamil Nadu are likely to experience light to moderate summer rain till March 21," said Dr S Balachandran, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology of RMC.

As far as Chennai and its suburbs are concerned heavy rain is expected to occur in some parts of the city for the next 48 hours. For the last few days, Chennai and its suburbs experienced a surge in the maximum and minimum temperature, it recorded around 34 degree Celsius and 24 degree Celsius respectively.

However, due to the showers experienced in the city it is likely to drop more than usual.

A weather blogger said, "Many parts of Tamil Nadu including Chennai, and its neighbouring districts witnessed rain. For the next 2 - 3 days the rains will occur over the East Coast of India influenced by the Westerly trough."

According to RMC, on Friday from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, in Chennai Mugalivakkam and Perungudi received 6 cm of rainfall each, Alandur, Meenambakkam 5 cm each, Kodambakkam, and Taramani 4 cm each, and Nungambakkam recorded 2 cm.