Heavy rainfall alert for Tamil Nadu; next 24 hours crucial, IMD says

Heavy showers have been forecast on Sunday for Tamil Nadu this week as a new low-pressure area develops in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal, off the western coast of Sri Lanka. As a result, the next 24 hours are expected to be extremely crucial for the state, as the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has issued an orange alert for moderate to heavy rainfall in areas like Villupuram, Chennai, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, and Tiruvarur, as well as in Puducherry and Karaikal. The rains will offer relief from the heat spell in the state over the past few days. Kanyakumari's Thirparappu area received the highest rainfall of 61.2mm over the past 24 hours, as of Sunday morning, the RMC said. Local forecasters echoed the same, reposting videos of heavy rain in delta areas of the state, such as Srivanchiyam. Heavy rain has also been forecast in isolated spots over the Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, and Villuppuram districts, as well as Puducherry. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also forecast cloudy skies today, with thunderstorms likely to occur in one or two places. The IMD added that though the new low-pressure area was nearly stationary in the early hours of Sunday, cyclonic upper-air circulation in the area is expected to move the low-pressure area in a west-northwestard (WNW) direction over the next 24 hours. This leads to rain intensifying in the state. In that regard, as much as 200 cubic feet per second of excess water is being released from the Cholavaram Lake into the Kosasthalaiyar river, as a precautionary measure, an Indian Express Tamil report said. Disaster relief teams have been rushed to a number of districts in anticipation of possible waterlogging—Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Karaikal, which face the possibility of moderate to heavy rain today. They have also been dispatched to ten districts in Kanchipuram, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi, where a warning of heavy to very heavy rain has been issued for Monday.