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Chennai receives thundershowers as Met Dept predicts rain for next two days

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Chennai witnessed a sudden drop in temperature followed by thundershowers late on Sunday afternoon. Speaking to TNM, S Balachander, Director of Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai says the rains can be expected for the next two days. 

“We are expecting thunder activity today (Sunday) for three hours. No extra precaution needs to be taken. We can expect rains for the next two days,” he said.

A press release from Regional Met Department reads, “Moderate thunderstorms with rain is likely to occur in some areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur.”

Thunderstorm and rains likely to continue for next three hours pic.twitter.com/fLDHCSiXxo

— TN SDMA (@tnsdma) September 16, 2018

Weather blogger Srikanth of Chennai Rains added that the sudden change in weather can be attributed to the low pressure belt formed over Bay of Bengal. “Parts of north Tamil Nadu will receive rainfall. There are also good chances for heavy gusts of wind in addition to the rains,” he said. As per the observations see on RMC’s website, Chennai has recorded 8 mm rainfall since Sunday morning with an average windspeed of 1.4 kmph. 

Another popular weather blogger, Tamil Nadu Weatherman Pradeep John remarked on his Facebook post, “A rare September Cyclone is in the making after 2005 in Bay of Bengal.” Certain districts in TN have been receiving rainfall sporadically for a week as result of the North-West winds from the low-pressure belt over the Bay.

Massive thunderstorms formed over Megamalai-Virudhunagar regions on Saturday in Tamil Nadu resulted in good rains over Sivakasi which received 100 mm rainfall in just an hour. Several regions in Virudhunagar, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram districts have received a good amount of rainfall with Sivakasi recording the highest at 13 cm. 

Unlike other parts of India, Tamil Nadu gets a majority of its annual rainfall during the Northeast monsoon from October to December.  

Source: The News Minute