As though wanting to compensate for the dry few days Chennai was hit by intense set of thunderstorms that created a cloud burst type of rains over the city. With rainfall rates around 5 cm an hour many places got hit by strong thunderstorms accompanied by a sound and light show that created DTS affect as Twitter users mentioned. Anna University almost recorded 10 cms among the IMD automatic weather stations. When the official figures come there could be a few 10 cms for sure.
As one can observe from the rainfall pattern the heaviest spells were to the Southern parts of Chennai while the Northern suburbs like Puzhal etc missed out. The heaviest spell occurred around 11 PM for the city while for places to the South of Tambaram it occurred around midnight.
A combination of factors that are likely to play together there exists a fair chance of rains to continue over most parts of Tamil Nadu today as well. Under the influence of the developing Upper Air Cyclonic Circulation over the Bay area the mid tropospheric winds are perfectly aligned to create a moisture drag over Peninsular India. Aided by the moisture drag thunderstorms could be triggered by the explosive atmospheric conditions thanks to very high Convective Potential estimated by models over the areas to the West of Chennai.
Fair chance of rains continuing for Chennai exists today as well while a few places in the interior areas could get very heavy spells today. All in all it looks another perfect day for rains over Tamil Nadu.