City to have light showers today

Rains over the last few days have increased levels at the reservoirs

February 19, 2013 10:35 am | Updated 10:35 am IST - CHENNAI

The city and its neighbourhoods will probably receive light showers on Tuesday, as a low pressure area over the south-eastern portion of the Arabian Sea has persisted.

Over the past three days, several districts in the State, including Chennai, have been recording rainfall. On Monday morning, weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam received nearly 1 cm of rain.

The low pressure area, which has extended over Lakshadweep Islands and the Karnataka coast, is now expected to bring in showers to most districts.

Officials of the meteorological department said that heavy rainfall had lashed other places on the fringes of the city, including Poondi (6cm), Ennore (5cm) and Tiruvallur (4 cm).

This was welcome, as the city has been rain-starved thanks to a weak monsoon. While Nungambakkam recorded 2 cm over the past three days,

Meenambakkam registered 1.4 cm, which is short of the average rainfall of 2 cm usually received during this period.

This month’s showers so far have been the second-highest rainfall levels registered in February during the past decade.

Wet days also brought some respite to the fast-drying reservoirs that are the major sources of drinking water supply to Chennai.

Apart from Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh, the rains in the catchment areas of the four water bodies in Poondi, Chembarambakkam, Cholavaram and Red Hills added nearly 80 million cubic feet of water, which is sufficient to supply Chennai for four or five days.

The showers also reduced evaporation loss, officials of the Water Resources Department said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.