Northeast monsoon is likely to set in over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry around October 28. India Meteorological Department has announced that northeasterly winds that act as a precursor to the monsoon may come in around October 26 or 27 and set the platform for northeast monsoon.
With the setting in of northeasterly winds in the lower tropospheric levels over Bay of Bengal, the southwest monsoon is expected to withdraw from the country around October 28. This would pave the way for simultaneous onset of the northeast monsoon over the southern region, officials said.
During the past 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Friday, Pallipattu in Tiruvallur district received 17 cm of rainfall, the highest amount for the day. Several other weather stations in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts recorded heavy rainfall. Many areas in and around the city such as Nungambakkam (7cm), Sholinganallur and Red Hills (6cm), Korattur, Alandur, Meenambakkam and Perambur (5 cm) and Chembarambakkam, Ambattur and Poonamallee (4 cm) received moderate to heavy rainfall.
More inflow into Poondi reservoir likely
Flood warning has been issued to surrounding villages of Kosasthalaiyar river in Tiruvallur district as about 900 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water was released from Ammapalli reservoir, Krishnapuram village, upstream in Andhra Pradesh around 2 p.m. on Friday.
Officials of the Water Resources Department said the surplus water discharged on Thursday had reached Arunkulam checkdam located 15 km upstream of Poondi reservoir, which is a major reservoir that feeds city water supply.
“We expect the water released into the Kosasthalaiyar river on Friday to reach Poondi. It already got an inflow of 250 cusecs from catchment areas following rains apart from Krishna water. It has a storage of 1,310 million cubic feet against capacity of 3,231 mcft,” said an official.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological department forecast light to moderate thundershowers to continue in a few places of north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and one or two places in south Tamil Nadu for the next two days.
S.Balachandran, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Chennai said the east-west shear zone and the depression over westcentral Bay of Bengal brought thunderstorms over the State.
The transition period of wind patterns from southwesterly to northeasterly was another reason for localised convection and intense thunderstorms. He recalled IMD’s forecast where NE monsoon is expected to bring near normal over north TN and rainfall would be below normal in southern parts.
Chennai may experience light rains in some areas during the weekend and the maximum temperature will be around 33 degree Celsius, he said.
