Chennai: In a development that will bring more rainfall for Chennai and Tamilnadu, a new depression is likely to form over northwest Bay of Bengal off West Bengal and north Odisha coasts in next 48 hours, according to MeT department.
It also said as the southwest monsoon winds are aggressive over interior Karnataka and Kerala, they are likely to bring heavy rainfall to the Ghat regions including Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni, Dindigul and Tirunelveli districts.
Chennai is continuing to get rainfall at a time when Northwest monsoon, our prime rainfall season, is still more than a month ahead.
Yesterday alone up to 9 cm of intermittent but intense showers have lashed the city rendering many streets water-logged.
Even during Independence Day celebrations today when vehicles were hardly plying on the roads, the rain-wrecked stretches created traffic hiccups and snarls. In low-lying localities like Pallikaranai, Velacheri and Vysarpadi there have been reports of mild flooding post yesterday’s rainfall.
A MeT official, said,”Yesterday’s low pressure area over northwest Bay of Bengal off West Bengal Coast is likely to concentrate into a depression in the next 48 hours. Also, Southwest monsoon is vigorous over coastal, south interior Karnataka and active over Kerala and Coastal Andhra Pradesh. In wake of these conditions, in the next 24 hours, heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over the Ghat areas tomorrow and on Saturday when the depression is likely to form.”
Regarding Chennai’s forecast, the official, said,”In the next 24 hours, sky condition is likely to be generally cloudy. Few spells of light to moderate rain are likely to occur. City temperatures have come down up to 2 degrees Celsius from normal. While the maximum temperature was 35 degrees, minimum temperature dropped to 24 degrees Celsius.”
Meanwhile in Kerala, the Kochi airport was shut due to floods and rescue operations are going on in full swing.