In the first intense spell of rain of this Northeast monsoon, several parts of the city received moderate showers from Sunday night. While the typical monsoon day has come as a relief for the city reeling from water shortage, it also brought with it the usual host of civic issues.
Schools in Chennai were instructed to shut an hour earlier on Monday owing to the heavy rain. The District Collector has ordered all city schools to declare holiday on Tuesday.
Though the meteorological department announced the onset of monsoon on October 27, the rains evaded core parts of the city till Sunday. A cyclonic circulation that lies over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka is expected to sustain moderate showers over the State for the next two days.
Rains may favour north coastal Tamil Nadu during this spell, and the Meteorological Department has predicted that rains may be heavy to very heavy (ranging between 7 cm and 20 cm) in one or two places. A few places in interior Tamil Nadu too would get heavy rainfall. S.Balachandran, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre said moderate showers were expected to continue till Wednesday in the city too. The wet spell is likely to last till the weekend over the State.
During the 24 hours ending at 8.30 a.m. on Monday, the weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam received 2 cm and 5 cm of rainfall respectively. From the early hours of Monday, several western parts of the city, including Anna Nagar, Ambattur, Porur and Valasaravakkam, experienced a heavy downpour. However, core parts of the city like Nungambakkam received intermittent showers and the weather station recorded 2 cm of rainfall till 3 p.m.
Several schools in the city closed an hour earlier due to intermittent showers and waterlogging. It is that time of the year again when roads get choked with traffic and sewage overflow. Within few hours of rain, places like Mogappair, Nungambakkam, T.Nagar and Ambattur were water logged. Industrial unit holders in Ambattur Estate had to down shutters due to waterlogging in their premises. They complained that the stormwater drain laid recently did not help alleviate flooding.
The Meteorological department has forecast that sky will be generally cloudy over Chennai and the maximum temperature would be around 31 degree Celsius till Wednesday.
