The Break in Monsoon period coincides with increased thunderstorms over Tamil Nadu as we mention often. Yesterday saw moderate to heavy thunderstorms hit parts of Kanchipuram district in North Coastal TN along with isolated places in Madurai, Pudukottai & Sivagangai districts in South Tamil Nadu.
While bulk of the rains went to the South of Chennai, the southern suburbs and places along GST & OMR road got moderate spells of rains in the evening. While Monsoon has gone into break period in Southern Peninsular India, the hyper active early part of the season has meant Tamil Nadu could celebrate ஆடி திருநாள் or ஆடி பெருக்கு as its called more popularly falling on the 18th day of the Tamil Month of Aadi.
No body possibly captures the essence of this festival and also how River Cauvery changes her character during the Southwest Monsoon better than the famous Tamil Author Kalki Krishnamurthy through his novel Ponniyin Selvan. The flooded river banks, majestic Veera Narayana Eri resembling a sea, and also how agricultural activity picks during the season, Kalki covers it all as he opens this historic Novel with ஆடி திருநாள் It is an understatement that the hero of the author is Ponniyin Selvan is closely linked to River Cauvery (Ponni) as it was called in the olden days. While the river Ponni is used by Kambar too Thondarapodi Azhwar mellifluously sings பொன்னி சூழ் திருவரங்கா எனக்கு இனிக் கதி என் சொல்லாய்? என்னை ஆளுடைய கோவே referring to Lord Ranganatha at modern day SriRangam.
Like the last couple of days today also we are likely to see thunderstorms in parts of Tamil Nadu as wind instability and strong lower level convergence continues to persist. Parts of South Tamil Nadu around Madurai, Pudukottai & Sivagangai could see isolated thunderstorms with the stretch 50 kms North & South of Puducherry in line for some fairly heavy thunderstorm activity late evening. As has been the case Chennai will also see isolated thunderstorm activity triggered by Sea breeze like the rest of the coastal areas. One of two places could see moderate to heavy spells of rains at times when the Westerlies interact with sea breeze front.