Chennai: A cloudburst in Chennai’s Manali, in the northern region of the city, has brought intense rainfall. Heavy rainfall of 27 cm, 26 cm & 23 cm in three different places in the city in Manali, New, Manali Town and Wimco Nagar respectively as on August 31, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
The cloud burst occurred over the Manali area and its neighbouring places late night on August 30, recording three extremely heavy, eight very heavy and 28 heavy rainfall events during the 24-hours ending at 8.30 on August 31 morning.
“There were six reports of rain spells of over 10 cm/hr that qualify the WMO (World Meteorological Organisation) and & IMD’s definition of cloud burst ..,” the weather body said. A cloudburst is rainfall of 100 mm or more within an hour over a small area (20–30 sq. km), according to IMD.
Flights from Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Delhi scheduled to arrive in Chennai were diverted to Bengaluru due to heavy rainfall in the wee hours of Sunday but after the weather was clear, the passengers were flown back to the city, said airport authorities.
“The radar data and station records confirm that some pockets of North Chennai received well above this threshold, making it a classic cloudburst event,” said independent weather blogger Pradeep John adding that it is a historic August for Chennai since a 100 mm rainfall was recorded thrice this month on August 22, 23 and 31.
{{/usCountry}}“The radar data and station records confirm that some pockets of North Chennai received well above this threshold, making it a classic cloudburst event,” said independent weather blogger Pradeep John adding that it is a historic August for Chennai since a 100 mm rainfall was recorded thrice this month on August 22, 23 and 31.
{{/usCountry}}“Such a sequence has never occurred in the city’s history,” John said. Chennai’s average rainfall for August normal in Nungambakkam station has crossed 200 mm this month.
The south west monsoon has been active over northern Tamil Nadu. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) said that light to moderate rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal area during the next 24 hours accompanied by strong wind gusting to 40-50 kmph.
On August 23, many places in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvannamalai districts received moderate to heavy overnight rains.