There is hope yet. The city may just get one or two more spells of rain before the year ends.
For the next few days though, dry weather will prevail. Weather models indicate that this will last around five days in the entire State, except for some light rain in a few areas.
This week’s mostly clear skies have already had an impact on the day temperature. On Wednesday, the maximum temperature shot up to 30.8 degree Celsius in Nungambakkam and 31.7 in Meenambakkam, two to three degrees above normal.
While November is considered the wettest month of the year, as it receives a major share of the northeast monsoon’s rainfall, December too normally records at least half of November’s share. On an average, the city gets about 20 cm of rainfall spread over six days in December, officials of the Meteorological department said.
The rains over the last week have helped bring down the deficit of seasonal rainfall, but the State is still short of 6 per cent for the season. Chennai needs 21 cm of additional rain to reach the normal of 76 cm for the period.
Misty mornings between rain spells have also been witnessed, and officials say this is normal. In 2005, Chennai recorded 42 cm of rain in December. Last year’s figure for this month was 13 cm. “We are expecting some more rain during the third week of the month. In a few days, we will know how intense the showers will be,” an official said.
The meteorological department has forecast that the maximum temperature will be around 31 degree Celsius until Monday.
