The remnants of Cyclone Mandous, which has weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area on Saturday, will impact parts of the State for two or three days.
However, rain intensity will reduce by Monday.
Many flood-prone areas in north and south Chennai were free of waterlogging on Saturday.
The newly built storm-water drains, apart from de-silting of canals and localised solutions, helped in the quick draining of floodwater from roads. Personnel from the civic body and line departments were on the field in many areas, nearly through the night on Friday and on Saturday to manage issues like flooding and power supply disruptions.
In south Chennai, howling strong winds damaged electric poles and disrupted power supply till Saturday noon.
Friday’s downpour at several places in north Tamil Nadu helped marginally bridge the rain deficit this monsoon season. The State’s overall seasonal rainfall was 38.6 cm, which is 2% less than its average of 39.3 cm on Saturday. The shortfall has dropped from 5% to 2%. (A deviation of 19% in seasonal rain on the negative or positive side is however considered normal by the Regional Meteorological Centre).
Chennai’s seasonal rainfall has improved from a negative figure to a surplus of 14% due to the recent showers. During the past 24 hours, ending 8.30 a.m. on Saturday, heavy to very heavy rain lashed several places in the city.
Some of the weather stations that received rain were Ayanavaram, Kundrathur (15 cm) and Nungambakkam (11 cm). The city recorded only light rain on Saturday as remnants of the cyclone moved inland.
As torrential rain over city reservoirs brought heavy inflow, the water discharge from the Poondi reservoir was increased to 5,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) on Saturday. Poondi also gets Krishna water through the Kandaleru Poondi canal.
Discharge from Red Hills and Chembarambakkam reservoirs remained the same despite good inflow.
S. Balachandran, Additional Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, said parts of the State would continue to experience wet spell as there would be easterly flow of winds towards the remnants of the system, which would dissipate into the Arabian sea.
Cyclone Mandous was the 13th cyclone to cross between Chennai and Puducherry in the past 131 years. Gusty surface winds of 70-75 kmph were recorded in places like Nungambakkam and Tirur of Tiruvallur district as the cyclone made its landfall. The revamped S band radar in Chennai helped in tracking the cyclone and its cloud structure. “We are monitoring the weather as there are more weeks for the season to end,” he added.
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