Dry weather likely in most of TN and Puducherry for Pongal

With North East monsoon having ended, Tamil Nadu has been seeing hot and dry days in the past week. However, on Sunday morning, parts of the state including Chennai city, experienced mild and brief spells of rain. The latest bulletin from Regional Meteorological Centre Chennai, predicts light rain in isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Sunday. However, dry weather is likely in most parts of the state and union territory till the end of Pongal, on January 18.

Weather blogger Pradeep John made a quick note of the brief showers on his Facebook page, adding that the rains will be limited to the coastal areas.

“Winter is on for few days till end of Pongal, after which we may again see some increase in night temperature. Meanwhile, there is chance of light rains in KTC, coastal TN and Delta tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday mornings. The rains will limited to areas close to the coast. Western interior TN will continue to be colder than other parts of TN,” he wrote.

Dry weather is likely to prevail over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the next four days, until the end of Pongal. In Chennai, the sky condition is likely to be generally cloudy on Sunday and partly cloudy on Monday. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 31 and 22 degrees Celsius respectively.

It was predicted that Chennai city is likely to receive more rains in the month of January than is normally seen. Between January 1 and 12, the city has recorded 34.1 mm rain as opposed to its normal measure of 10 mm, marking a departure of 241% increase from normal. 

Chennai’s neighbouring Kancheepuram district too recorded high levels of rain this month. Kancheepuram received 50.7 mm rain as opposed to its normal 8.5 mm, a deviation of 496% from its usual rainfall. Thiruvallur and Vellore are the other districts that have received more than their share of rainfall this January while the rest of the state has recorded a deficit.