With just a couple of weeks to go for the Northeast monsoon to wind up normally, Chennai district is still grossly in deficit with reference to its average rainfall for the season. Going by the rainfall received so far in the city, it is likely that this may be the second poor monsoon in the past five decades.
According to data of the Meteorological department, Chennai has recorded 324.6 mm of rainfall till Friday morning against the seasonal average of 813.2 mm so far. The city is headed for one of its worst monsoon failure in the past five decades.
While there are rumours about yet another cyclone waiting to hit Tamil Nadu coast in the next few days, officials of the meteorological department have denied it. “There is a trough of low pressure area over Tenessarim coast near Myanmar and adjoining south Andaman Sea as of now. But, this is so far away to bring any weather system to the Tamil Nadu coast. There are no chances for a cyclone as of now. Chennai too may only have light showers for four days as the monsoon is active,” said an official.
Meteorologists noted that Chennai witnessed one of the worst Northeast monsoon in 2003 since five decades. Y.E.A.Raj, former deputy director general of meteorology, Chennai, said “the city recorded monsoon rainfall below 500 mm during four years since 1969. In 2003, Chennai received only 311.5 mm of rainfall during NE monsoon. This year may not end up with worst performance over the recent decades.”
Pointing out that the city’s annual rainfall has crossed 1,000 mm benchmark, he said southwest monsoon has contributed a major share for yearly rainfall. Chennai has so far recorded 1,060 mm against the yearly average of 1,400 mm. “We cannot rate this as poor rainfall. But, Chennai is feeling the pinch as the water bodies have still not benefited from the monsoon,” he added.
Underlining the data that the NE monsoon has spilled over to January of next year during one-third of the years, he said there is still hope for the monsoon to wind up with less deficit.
