Chennai and its neighbouring districts may receive moderate rains on Sunday due to cyclonic storm Phethai, according to the Indian Meteorological Department.
As the weather system has begun moving closer, some coastal areas have already started experiencing windy weather since Saturday afternoon. Phethai, that lies 590 km east-southeast of Chennai, is likely to become a severe cyclonic storm on Sunday and cross the Andhra Pradesh coastline between Machilipatnam and Kakinada on Monday afternoon.
Officials of the Meteorological Department said the weather system has picked up pace and is movingat a speed of 17 kmph.
S. Balachandran, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, said the system has crossed 350 km in the past 24 hours till Saturday evening. “Districts like Kancheepuram, Chennai and Tiruvallur are expected to get rains when it comes within the 200-km range near the city. However, there may be no direct impact of this system in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Bloggers weigh in
Chennai experienced relatively cool weather on Saturday with the day’s temperature dropping to 29.8 degree Celsius, which is one degree lower than the average for the season. Residents of Ennore noted that strong winds triggered rough waves in their area.
Weather bloggers noted the upper level winds were not favourable and were not allowing the cyclone to intensify. K. Srikanth, a blogger said the weather system was at a low latitude and could not gain strength. This has slowed down the process of it becoming a cyclonic storm, he added.
The city will experience winds blowing at a speed of 45 km per hour on Sunday. There are chances of heavy rains in one or two places of north coastal Tamil Nadu. The department has forecast light to moderate rains to occur over the city on Monday.
