Cyclone likely to form in Bay of Bengal on December 3

Chennai: A well-marked low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal will concentrate into a Depression by Friday and intensify into a cyclonic storm on December 3, bringing heavy to very heavy rainfall to several parts of Tamil Nadu for the next five days.

The threat of a cyclone hitting the Tamil Nadu coast looms large even as Chennai and its neighbouring districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, and Chengalpattu were slowly limping back to normalcy after heavy rains on Wednesday – the average rainfall in Chennai city limits was 9.8 cm.

Several low-lying areas in Chennai continued to remain under the water on Thursday even as water was drained out from arterial and main roads and subways across the city. Several residents complained that water wasn’t drained out from many interior roads and streets in the city area, while the waterlogging was less in most of the areas where storm water drains were built.

Chief Minister M K Stalin, who visited the control room at the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), appealed to all departments to work together to ensure that water is drained out completely from all areas.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heavy to heavy rains for Chennai and several north Tamil Nadu districts from November 30 to December 4. In its latest bulletin, the IMD said the well-marked low pressure is likely to move west-northwestwards and concentrate into a Depression over southeast Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours.

“Continuing to move further west-northwestwards, it would intensify gradually into a cyclonic storm over Southwest Bay of Bengal around December 3. Thereafter, it would move northwestwards and reach the North Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh coasts around the early morning of December 4 as a cyclonic storm,” the bulletin added.

The IMD also issued Orange Alert to Tamil Nadu on December 2 and 3, while predicting heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts, while heavy rains will occur at isolated places over Thoothukudi, Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Cuddalore, Villupuram districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.