Parts of north Tamil Nadu and some districts like Theni and Dindigul may experience light to moderate rain on Thursday. The Meteorological Department forecasts that isolated heavy rain may continue over western ghats districts.
During the past 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, many places in the districts along the western ghats, particularly Nilgiris, received very heavy rain. Gudalur Bazaar in the Nilgiris district received 18 cm of rainfall. On Wednesday, places like Coonoor, Valparai, Udhagamandalam and Salem received light rain till 7.30 p.m. The trend of isolated heavy rain may continue on Thursday over the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni, Dindigul and Tenkasi districts.
Officials noted that the strong south-westerly winds had influenced moderate to heavy rain over the past 10 days in the Nilgiris and Coimbatore districts. Avalanche (Nilgiris district) and Chinnakalar (Coimbatore district) have received 90 cm each between July 4 and July 13.
The Meteorological Department has also issued an impact based forecast for the Nilgiris and Coimbatore, including flooding of low level areas and damages to crops and cattle and agro-advisory to other districts.
The movement of the trough over Odisha for the past few days influenced rain particularly over the western ghats districts. Those districts in north Tamil Nadu bordering Rayalaseema and Andhra Pradesh region have chances of a few spells of rainfall this week as southwest monsoon is active in the region, officials said.
Chennai too has chances of evening thunderstorms that may bring rainfall up to moderate intensity on Thursday due to convective rain cells. On Wednesday, many places, including Nungambakkam, Villivakkam, Ennore and Puzhal experienced light showers during the evening hours.
Just like Wednesday, the city’s day temperature too would be around 35-36 degree Celsius, which is slightly below normal than average for the season. Rainfall activity would be restricted to one or two places after Friday.
The State’s rainfall remains in excess for the season due to continuous rain spells. Tamil Nadu has recorded 11.1 cm of rainfall this season since June 1 and this is 46% more than its seasonal share.
