Chennai and Surrounding Areas See Downgraded Heavy Rainfall Warning
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Chennai, Dec 19 (NationPress) The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has reduced the heavy rainfall warning for Chennai and its neighboring districts, including Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, and Tiruvallur, for Thursday.
The updated forecast suggests that light to moderate rain is anticipated in many regions of North Coastal Tamil Nadu and at scattered locations in other parts of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal.
A low-pressure system over the southwest Bay of Bengal has developed into a well-defined low-pressure zone.
This system is expected to shift northwestward towards the northern coast of Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh within the next 24 hours and will subsequently proceed northward along the Andhra Pradesh coastline in the following 24 hours.
During the current northeast monsoon season, Tamil Nadu has recorded a 14 percent increase in rainfall, accumulating 447 mm compared to an average of 393 mm.
Chennai has seen 845 mm of rainfall, which is 16 percent above the average, while Coimbatore experienced a notable 47 percent rise.
The heavy rains since the commencement of the northeast monsoon on October 1 have brought the reservoirs in Tamil Nadu close to their full capacity.
The reservoirs are currently only 12 percent short of their total capacity of 224.297 thousand million cubic feet (TMC).
According to the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department (WRD), 12 reservoirs (three in the Coimbatore region, seven in the Madurai region, and two in the Chennai region) have attained full capacity.
The WRD reported that 18 reservoirs have storage levels exceeding 90 percent of capacity, while 23 reservoirs maintain water levels between 70 percent and 80 percent.
The total water storage across Tamil Nadu's reservoirs is currently at 195.455 TMC, leaving it 24.824 TMC short of full capacity.
The substantial rainfall over the past two and a half weeks during the active northeast monsoon phase has significantly enhanced water inflows into the state's 90 reservoirs, increasing storage levels by 10.68 percentage points—from 76.46 percent to 87.14 percent.
