Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Chennai - A clear day to end .. as in Coimbatore
Chennai - 80% clear skies, with temperature around 30 deg and mild wind from south-east continues.
Take a look at the clear looking BAY .. http://ping.fm/5dvyk
Clear looking Bay, some showers over north-east Andhra coast and orissa coast.. More medium showers over North-west Maharastra as well.
Coimbatore - A clear, deep blue sky morning with some low clouds moving in from north-east.
Chennai - Mild wind from south-east, will get cloudy around mid-morning and will clear after 2 pm.
Chennai's all time rainfall record for November .. 452.4 mm (25.11.1976)
Arabian Sea `low' weakens, rain will vanish for next 2 days and will be back by weekend .. http://is.gd/4WKCp

Rains likely to relent as Arabian Sea `low' weakens

The low-pressure area over Kanyakumari-Lakshadweep region weakened during the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning presumably after incessant rains cooled down sea-surface temperatures.

Satellite pictures on Monday indicated that the system may just have lost traction after encountering cooler waters over east-central Arabian Sea.


WARM OFF COAST
But coastal waters off the southwest coast of India continued to feature sea-surface temperatures of up to 30 degree Celsius, well above the threshold limit of 27.5 degree Celsius for weather systems to sustain.

Satellite pictures by international models also indicated that the `warm pool' may have withdrawn from around Sri Lanka to extend south and southeast bordering the island- nation's territorial waters but touching the west coast of Indonesia.

This is where models see the next significant weather activity being triggered, culminating in an easterly wave that India Meteorological Department (IMD) expects to buffet the country's southeast coast by the weekend.

Still, a remnant cyclonic circulation hovered over Lakshadweep and neighbourhood on Monday. A trough of low pressure extended from here to north Maharashtra coast where easterlies could still rain down their moisture.

Forecast for the next two days said that rain or thundershowers are likely at many places over Kerala, Lakshadweep and coastal Karnataka.

A few places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, south interior Karnataka and coastal Andhra Pradesh too may receive thundershowers.

NEXT WAVE

Isolated rain or thundershowers have been forecast over Rayalaseema, Telangana and north interior Karnataka in what is largely a weakening trend in intensity ahead of the next southerly rain wave.

This wave, with a cyclonic circulation or even a full-fledged `low' in tow, is picked by international models, including the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), to mostly track across or just off the south of Sri Lanka taking away with it a bulk of the rains.

Secondary gains are indicated for the whole of Sri Lanka and the adjoining southeast Tamil Nadu coast and south Kerala. Some of the rains may get radiated to north along coastal Tamil Nadu.

The causative cyclonic circulation/`low' is forecast to die out over south-southeast Arabian Sea off the peninsular tip.

Meanwhile, IMD too has joined the outlook for the existing rainfall regime over peninsular India to slightly shift towards central and east-central India as the week wears on.

WIND PATTERN

Guidance by numerical weather prediction models signalled the presence of an upper air trough extending from the Kanyakumari coast to Konkan (Maharashtra) coast.

This formation will continue to support a regime of westerly to west-northwesterly winds over the plains of northwest India and Indo-Gangetic plains during the next 24 hours.

Thereafter, the winds will turn northwesterly with gradual strengthening, which will colder climes into the region. Forceful winds would help blow away the threat of dense fog as well.

IMD satellite pictures showed convective clouds over parts of southeast and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea. Low to medium-high clouds were seen over parts of northwest, central, east, northeast and peninsular India.

Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall activity is likely over the North-East during the next three days. Maximum temperatures could rise by 3-4 degree Celsius over the plains of northwest India during the four days.

Moderate fog conditions are likely to continue over plains of northwest India during the next three days.

300 Catholic fish workers feared missing

In the ghastly impact of Cyclone Phyan, which crossed the Arabian Sea triggering ferocious waves and strong water currents, an estimated 300 fish workers of Kanyakumari district in Trivandrum Diocese are feared missing and 27 fishing vessels have reportedly lost in the cyclonic ferocity, November 13.

The fish workers belonging to the coastal parishes of Erayunamthurai, Poothurai, Thoothoor, Chinnathurai, Vallavillai and Marthandamthurai ventured into the Arabian Sea from different fishing harbours in Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat and Maharastra.

Usually they stay 30-40 days in the sea for fishing operations. According to the fishing village sources, they set out to sea during the last week of October and were due for return by December first week. What has irked the fisher community is that the media report that many workers are missing and a host of vessels are caught in the cyclonic waves in the Arabian Sea, and that their whereabouts are unknown.

According to the parish sources, 11 vessels have been smashed and no information is available on the workers in the vessels. The fate of 28 vessels is not known — 10 from Chinnathurai parish, eight from Thoothoor, five from Poothurai, three from Vallavillai and two from Marthandamthurai.

Jose, who was caught in the jaws of death in the cyclone and had a narrow escape, said that he was fishing with 10 others at 75 nautical miles from the seashore in Karnataka state.

Suddenly, his vessel turned topsy-turvy in the strong winds and all the occupants of the vessel clung to some broken parts of the damaged craft for survival.

He said his team was saved by another vessel and they landed at Karwar in Karnataka.

The parish priests of the fishing villages have urged the district administration and fisheries department to launch search operations on war footing to trace the missing persons and vessels.

Some of the vessels had capsized in mid-sea and fish workers in other vessels had saved them, in Goa, Karwar in Karnataka and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra state. The district administration of Kanyakumari has set up a control room at the collectorate with a toll-free number. District collector Rajendra Ratnoo said the Indian Coast Guard and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre have launched search operations with speed boats and helicopters.

The district collector of Kanyakumari, superintendent of police, officials of the fisheries department and revenue officials are camping in the coastal villages.

Families of the missing workers are offering prayers for the safe return of the missing persons.