Rainfall on Wednesday evening threw traffic out of gear and inundated interior roads in the city and its suburbs.
Road users struggled to negotiate inching traffic on many arterial roads such as Anna Salai, Poonamallee High Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai. Motorists had a tough time crossing the stretches where Metro Rail work is in progress. V.Anand, a resident of MGR Nagar, said “When I was returning from Broadway, it started raining near Central Railway Station. It took me nearly two hours to reach MGR Nagar.”
Residents of areas such as Koyambedu and Chintadripet said the interior roads, which are already in dire need of repair, were further damaged following the rains. However, rainfall was not reported in south Chennai in the evening. The need for expediting the ongoing infrastructure works by various government agencies such as Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metrowater to enable relaying of roads was underscored by many residents.
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Officials of the Meteorological department attributed the rainfall to convective activity that usually follows a period of heat. The showers for nearly a month now were caused by the intense heat during the daytime.
On Wednesday, the maximum temperature was 34.6 degree Celsius and 34.8 degree Celsius at Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam respectively. Though this was only one degree Celsius above the normal temperature, it was sufficient to cause rainfall, an official said.
The observatory in Nungambakkam recorded 39 mm during the 12-hour period ending 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday. However, there was no rainfall till 5.30 p.m. and the Meenambakkam observatory did not receive any rainfall during the 12-hour period.
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The department forecasts that rain or thundershower may occur in some areas for the next two days and the maximum temperature would be around 35 degree Celsius.