Wednesday turned out to be another day of scattered showers and thunderstorms for several parts of the State, including Chennai, under the influence of a weather system persisting over the Bay of Bengal.
Chennai, which had experienced hot weather the previous day, woke up to an overcast sky and typical Northeast monsoon weather.
While many core parts of the city missed much of the thundershowers, the southern and western parts enjoyed a good share of the intense thunderstorms. Some areas in the southern suburbs, including Chitlapakkam and Chromepet experienced water-logging due to overnight showers.
According to data from the Meteorological Department, Tamaraipakkam and Kolapakkam received a heavy rainfall of 8.8 cm and 8.4 cm respectively and Poonamallee 5.4 cm of rains during the past 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Several other automatic weather stations and rain gauges registered moderate rainfall. Among those that received significant amount of rain were Anna University - 3 cm, Kelambakkam, Taramani and Meenambakkam - 2 cm each. Weather stations in Nungambakkam and Sathyabama university received 1 cm of rainfall each.
Among the four city reservoirs, Chembarambakkam recorded nearly 4 cm of rainfall and Red Hills 2 cm. However, overnight rains did not bring much inflow into the drinking water reservoirs.
As the cyclonic circulation over southeast and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal extending up to 5.8 km above mean sea level persists, several parts of the State, including coastal areas will experience scattered rainfall till Thursday. Heavy rainfall up to 13 cm is likely in one or two areas in districts, including Theni, Dindigul and Nilgiris.
S.Balachandran, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, said during Southwest monsoon, rains occur during evening or night hours. But, with the cyclonic circulation close to Tamil Nadu coast, it helped pump in moisture into the land region and brought scattered rainfall. Chennai experienced a typical Northeast monsoon day with the weather system triggering rains during early morning hours.
