Rains reduce loss due to evaporation in reservoirs

The rain in the city for the past three days has improved the storage in the reservoirs that supply Chennai besides keeping the city cool.

Officials of the Water Resources Department said that the rainfall since Thursday has reduced water loss due to evaporation by 50 per cent.

On an average, four million cubic feet of water is lost in each reservoir daily due to evaporation.

Two days supply

Due to the rain, the reservoirs received an additional storage sufficient to supply the city for nearly two days. Chennai Metrowater draws 25 mcft of water from the reservoirs daily to meet city's water needs.

The reservoir in Red Hills benefitted the maximum as the rain in the catchment area had added 20 mcft since Thursday night. It had received 22.6 mm of rainfall till Saturday morning.

The storage levels in Poondi and Cholavaram reservoirs went up by around 10 mcft and 6 mcft respectively over the past three days. However, the Chembarampakkam reservoir did not get inflow as it registered only minimal rainfall.

On Saturday, the combined storage of the four reservoirs stood at 7,260 mcft against its full capacity of 11,057 mcft.

The cloudy sky and drizzle over the city and suburbs brought down the maximum temperature considerably on Saturday.

While Nungambakkam registered a maximum temperature of 30.7 degree Celsius, which is three degree Celsius lower than the average, Meenambakkam recorded 31 degree Celsius, five degree Celsius below the average.

Both the observatories registered only a trace of rainfall during the 12-hour period ending 8.30 p.m. on Saturday.

Upper air curculation

According to Meteorological Department officials, the upper air circulation over Tamil Nadu contributed to the summer showers in the city. Besides rain or thundershowers in some areas, Sunday will experience cool weather as the sky would be cloudy and the maximum temperature would be around 30 degree Celsius.