The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has forecast intense rainfall over parts of south Tamil Nadu and coastal districts of the southern region till Monday.
While the system in the Arabian sea has lost its significance for the region, a cyclonic circulation over southwest Bay of Bengal, off south Sri Lanka coast, may trigger light to moderate rain over many places in south Tamil Nadu and a few places in north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal.
Officials of the Meteorological Department said rain spells would be more concentrated in the southern parts of the State. The RMC has issued an orange alert for Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tenkasi districts on Sunday, stating that rainfall of up to very heavy intensity, of up to 20 cm, was likely to occur at one or two places.
Heavy rain of up to 11 cm is likely to occur at one or two places over districts, including Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur on Sunday.
Officials said Chennai was likely to get light to moderate rain in some areas till Monday. However, people are postponing their travel plans to the city due to rumours of heavy rain. K. Anil, of Vyasarpadi, said: “My friend has postponed her plans to come to Chennai after some social media platforms shared news of possibility of heavy rain in the city.”
P. Senthamarai Kannan, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, Chennai, said districts in the extreme south had prospects of heavy rain in the next two days. However, the weather system may not intensify into a low pressure area, and would lose strength. Rain may reduce from December 20.
On Monday, isolated heavy rain is likely over Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram districts. On prospects of rain during later weeks of December, he said weather models may have deviations in forecasts for longer than seven days as this was a transition period. The RMC gives forecasts for up to seven days for accuracy.
