As Southwest Monsoon is set for a fresh surge over Kerala & Karnataka overnight rains were recorded at many places over North Tamil Nadu & South Andhra Pradesh. The TNAU AWS in Pallipattu near Nagari has recorded about 10 cms rains. While R K Pet in Tiruvallur district recorded about 5 cms places closer to Chennai like Ennore port recorded about 2 cms. The IMD observatory in Nungambakkam recorded about 8 mm rains from these spells. Nagari in neighbouring Chittoor district has recorded almost 10 cms rains while Nagalapuram near Nagari has recorded 7 cms of rains. The bulk of the rains falling in Chittoor & Nellore district of South AP while North Tamil Nadu missed the more intense spells under unfavorable wind directions.
In the meanwhile Southwest Monsoon is expected to pick up pace under a fresh surge over Kerala & Karnataka. Though we are almost on 20th June the Arabian Sea branch of Southwest Monsoon has been making very slow progress. With an East West Shear Zone now in place above 10 N latitude we can expect Southwest Monsoon to get a fresh impetus bringing heavy rains to the West Coast once again. Mumbai got its first meaningful rains since the start of Southwest Monsoon yesterday though it is still missing the typical start to Monsoon which happens with an intense spell of rains signalling the arrival. We could see parts of North Kerala & South Coastal Karnataka get heavy rains today at many places while one or two places could get very heavy rains particularly along the Malenad highlands around Kudremukh / Agumbe etc. Some areas along the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu particularly around Valparai & Nilgiris could be in line to receive a heavy spell or two.
With the overnight thunderstorms still hanging around the region North Tamil Nadu could see much lower day time temperatures today making it a very pleasant early part of the day till about 11 AM. Chennai could see pleasant conditions till about 11 AM post which we can see much more clearer skies while the temperatures are likely to stay well south of Normal. Day time max for Chennai could settle around 33 degrees today.
