Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Rain takes Chennai by surprise. Receives 72mm in less than a hour

Interior roads, including Arunachala Naicken Street at Chintadripet, flooded
— Photo: K. Pichumani.

SURREALISTIC LOOK: A slice of the rain-soaked city on Monday.

Heavy rain that lasted over an hour caught people unawares in many parts of the city and suburbs on Monday evening.

The Meteorological Department in Nungambakkam registered 70.2 mm of rainfall during the 12-hour period ending 8.30 p.m. This is much mor e than the monthly average of 53.7 mm. Meenambakkam recorded 46 mm of rainfall during the same period. The sharp showers came after a sultry day as Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam recorded a maximum temperature of 38.4 degree Celsius and 38.8 degree Celsius, one degree above the average temperature this month. Several localities in and around the city, including Aminjikarai, Anna Nagar, T.Nagar, Koyambedu and Pallikaranai, experienced heavy showers accompanied by loud thunder. Some interior roads, including Arunachala Naicken Street at Chintadripet, were flooded. Besides affecting the traffic on arterial roads, many bus services were also hit.

The scattered materials near the Metro Rail project site at Kathipara junction following rains aggravated the traffic snarl on the stretch. Traffic was thrown out of gear for a couple of hours around Guindy and Saidapet with vehicles piling up for prolonged period of time. Murky sky and heavy showers around 7 p.m. took motorists by surprise and many of them took shelter under trees and shops. V.S. Rajkumar, a resident of Nerkundram, said “I had to wait at a teashop for almost 20 minutes until the rain subsided.” Residents of southern suburbs such as Medavakkam, Perungudi, Sholinganallur and Velachery complained of power cut for almost an hour.

Officials of the Meteorological Department said heavy downpour within an hour was caused by thunderstorm activity. However, such rainfall in June was not unusual. Last year, 53.4 mm of rain was registered in 24 hour period on June 28.

The highest recorded rainfall in a single day was 347.9 mm on June 14, 1996. (Which was accompanied by Tropical Storm) The department forecasts that the rain or thundershower would occur in some areas of the city and the maximum temperature would be 39 degree Celsius.

Source: Hindu

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