Unseasonal rains continued to lash Chennai and its suburbs, with heavy showers flooding several roads in the city on Sunday. Meteorological department officials said the rain was due to a low pressure in the West-Central Bay of Bengal and a trough along the coast. The trough, which was marked in interior Tamil Nadu over the last two days and contributed to heavy showers, has moved to the coastal areas. It is likely to develop into a low pressure area and Chennai may continue to receive rain for a day or two more, they added.
Since June, the city has received 424 mm of rainfall, which is 208 mm more than the average. Deputy Director General of the Meteorological Department Y.E.A. Raj said while a major share of the rain registered in the State is during the northeast monsoon, rain during the southwest monsoon is not unusual but heavy rains such as those in Chennai are occasional.
Between 8.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m. on Sunday, Nungambakkam recorded a rainfall of 34.8 mm of rainfall, while it was 25.1 mm in Meenambakkam. The rain brought down the maximum temperature by around four degrees from the average. The maximum temperature in Nungambakkam on Sunday was 29.9 degree Celsius and 29.6 degree Celsius in Meenambakkam.
Being a holiday, the non-stop rain, however, did not have any significant impact on the flow of the traffic, except in the busy shopping areas around Panagal Park and on Arcot Road.
Though there were no major traffic pile-ups, the movement of vehicles was relatively slow. Compounding the problem for the motorists was the roads where works on stormwater drain and relaying of stretches were under way. A case in point was Arcot Road and the stretches in Kodambakkam, Vadapalani, and Saligramam that were scraped for road-laying works. The dug-up roads in many areas including Adambakkam, Vysarpadi, Chinmaya Nagar, Valasarawakkam, Koyambedu and M.G.R. Nagar posed risks to the users.
The southern suburbs of Chennai continued to experience heavy showers with 48.2 millimetres of rainfall recorded in Tambaram during the 24 hours ending 8 a.m. on Sunday. Traffic flow was slow on arterial roads, particularly near the road-over bridges under construction in Pallavaram and Tambaram. The rain did not hamper the schedule of trains and flights.
