The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : More showers expected this season

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Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

More showers expected this season

K. Lakshmi

Excess rainfall of 13 per cent so far, according to officials

536 mm rainfall received as against normal 473.2 mm
First spell of rainfall has lasted for nearly 20 days

CHENNAI: Chennai district has received an excess rainfall of 13 per cent so far during this year’s northeast monsoon, according to the Meteorological Department. More spells of rain are expected, they said.

The weather stations in Chennai district, including those at Anna University and the DGP office, received 536 mm rainfall as against the normal of 473.2 mm during the period between October 1 and November 16. However, such departure from average rainfall of up to 20 per cent is considered normal by the department.

Officials said the Nungambakkam observatory received 625 mm against its normal 503 mm so far, which is nearly 25 per cent more. Similarly, the facility at Meenambakkam recorded 636 mm of rainfall, which is about 40 per cent above average.

Y.E.A. Raj, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology of Regional Meteorological Centre, said the city has received 90 cm of rainfall so far as against the annual average of 122 cm.

Though there would be a decrease in rain in the next few days, residents could expect more showers “as this is not the end of monsoon. It would extend till mid-December.”

This year, the first spell of rainfall has lasted nearly 20 days. The city normally experiences dry period during monsoon. “We have had excess rainfall since 2004. The pattern so far this season is similar to the monsoons in 1997 and 2005 when the city had torrential rains,” he said.

City reservoirs

Chennai Metrowater officials said a week of rainfall this month brought in an additional storage of 2.4 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) to the four waterbodies. This is equal to nearly three months’ water supply.

Water discharge from Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh to that in Poondi, which was stopped owing to heavy rainfall a few days ago, was resumed on Friday.

The Poondi reservoir has realised 2.4 tmc of Kandaleru water since its release on September 15.

However, the city reservoirs are only half full, which would be enough to supply till June-end. Officials are confident that with more spells of rain and water release from Kandaleru, the reservoirs could be filled up soon.

Meanwhile, Chennai Corporation used seven pumps to remove stagnant water from Ganesapuram subway, Vyasarpadi, on Sunday to facilitate free flow of traffic.

In the southern suburbs, heavy rain in the past two days had led to inundation and many residential localities around Tirupananthaal Lake, Pammal, were flooded. With many drains clogged, localities such as Eswaran Nagar were flooded. Officials of the Revenue Department said most waterbodies had witnessed an increase in their storage.

(With inputs from K. Manikandan)

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