Cyclone Mandous will gradually weaken in next 3 hours

CHENNAI: Chennaiites experienced heavy rain from Thursday night as the Cyclone Mandous intensified into a severe cyclonic storm. It is 270 km away from south- southeast of Chennai and is likely to weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm in the next three hours, as per the Regional Meteorological Center (RMC) on Friday. The meteorological department forecasts north coastal Tamil Nadu is likely to get heavy to very heavy rain and intensify into extremely heavy rain today.

It would continue to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Puducherry and Sriharikota around Mahabalipuram as a cyclonic storm.

The cyclone is expected to cross with a maximum sustained wind speed of 65 kmph -75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph on Friday midnight to early hours of December 10.

Under the influence of cyclonic storm, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu are likely to get heavy to very heavy rain for the next few hours. Also, north interior districts are expected to get heavy rain today.

The centre predicted moderate rain for many places in the State such as Villupuram, Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts.

Light to moderate rain is likely to occur at a few places over Ranipet, Vellore, Tirupattur, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakkurichi, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Tiruchy, Karur, Erode, Salem, Namakkal, Tirupur, Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Dindigul, Theni, Madurai, Sivagangai, Virudhunagar and Tenkasi districts of Tamil Nadu.

According to RMC rainfall data (from 8.30 am on Dec 8 to 5.30 am on Dec 9), Nungambakkam received 52 mm rainfall, Meenambakkam 50 mm, Ennore 30 mm, Madhavaram 58 mm, Nagapattinam 22 mm, and Karaikal 18 mm.