CHENNAI: Once again, IMD’s red and orange alerts turned out to be a false alarm. Except for some light rain spells, city and the suburbs were mostly dry on Wednesday as schools and colleges stayed shut. Between 8:30am and 7:30pm, Nungambakkam recorded 2.6mm and Meenambakkam 1.2mm of rainfall. Ranipet recorded the highest at 73mm, and Dharmapuri 57mm.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) quietly withdrew its red alert for Chengalpet and three other north Tamil Nadu districts, citing a weakening weather system, and issued fresh warnings for Tiruvallur and Ranipet instead.
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The well-marked low pressure over the Bay of Bengal, which the agency said would intensify into a depression, fizzled out as it lay over north coastal Tamil Nadu by Wednesday evening. It may weaken into a low pressure by Thursday after drifting west-northwestwards across north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh. The forecast for Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Chengalpet, and Ranipet has now been downgraded from an orange alert for very heavy rainfall to a yellow alert for heavyrainfall of 6cm to 12cm in 24 hours.Officials defended the poor forecast, blaming the ‘dynamic nature’ of atmospheric systems. “Things can change in a few hours,” said B Amudha, deputy director general (addl charge), RMC Chennai, referring to the interaction between weather systems over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.Blogger Pradeep John, however, said the Bay system weakened after merging with a trough extending from the Arabian Sea depression. “This merged system may move towards north TamilNadu on Thursday, bringing widespread rainfall,” he said.Till 8:30am Wednesday, Periyakalapet in Puducherry recorded 25cm, Puducherry town 21cm, Ennore 12cm, Maduravoyal 11cm, Nungambakkam 10cm, and Meenambakkam 6cm.Bloggers said another low pressure may form around Oct 26 and could intensify into a cyclone. IMD has issued heavy rainfall warnings for 10 districts, including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, and Puducherry from Oct 26 to 28.
