Weather muted in North Tamil Nadu as heavy rain lashes South

Heavy rainfall has been reported from isolated places over Coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the 24 hours ending on Wednesday morning.

Most of it was concentrated over South Coastal Tamil Nadu, an India Met Department update said.

The North-East monsoon has been active over Tamil Nadu. Rainfall occurred at many places over the State while it was isolated over Kerala and South interior Karnataka.

The chief amounts of rainfall recorded (in cm) are: Vedaranyam-22; Madukkur-9; Peravurani, Muthupet, Thiruthuraipoondi, and Papanasam-8 each; Atiramapattinam-7; Manamelkudi, Mylaudy, Alangudi, Nagapattinam, and Pattukottai-5 each; Mannargudi, Arantangi, Arimalam, Trangambadi, and Nanguneri-4 each.

The skies over Chennai and neighbourhood in North Coastal Tamil Nadu have mostly cleared with a rain-suppressing anti-cyclone circulation moving into place.

This anti-cyclone is seen dispersing an easterly wave approaching Tamil Nadu from south of the Andaman Sea and would guide it instead straight towards Sri Lanka, say weather models.

Easterly waves are sure-fire rainmakers and have been involved in the rain episodes that the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast witnessed during the early stages of this year’s North-East monsoon.

The US Climate Prediction Centre indicates a reduction in rainfall along the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast during the week ending December 14 but shows a small area of excess showers around Chennai.

This small area recording excess showers is shown as growing in size during the week beginning December 15.

Meanwhile, in the North, the advancing winter has brought to play dense to very dense fog at isolated pockets of Punjab and North Rajasthan during the morning hours.

In the East, east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were hit in this manner.

Moderate to dense fog conditions prevailed in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi in North-West India and hills of Gangetic West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, the rest of the North-eastern States and Odisha.

Visibility was reduced to as low as 25 metres at Patiala, Ganganagar, Sultanpur, Fursatganj, Varanasi and Gaya.

The fog is attributed to a western disturbance that has called in over Afghanistan and rolled out an offspring cyclonic circulation that lies over Central Pakistan and adjoining West Rajasthan.

The one-month period from mid-December to mid-January is most crucial for North and North-West India during when the heaviest of fog descends, throwing vehicular, train and air traffic out of gear.

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