Chennai and parts of Tamil Nadu sees heavy rainfall, dams fill rapidly

Chennai and several parts of Tamil Nadu experienced 'extremely heavy rainfall' resulting in the dams getting filled up fast.

During the past 24 hours till 8.30 on Wednesday, the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, said it observed extremely heavy rainfall in many places.

The Cholavaram reservoir in neighbouring Tiruvallur district received 302.6 mm rainfall on a single day when the Northeast Monsoon commenced on October 15.

The Redhills lake, near here, received 279.2 mm rainfall while Chembarambakkam obtained 85 mm, Kannankottai Thervoy Kandigai: 62, Poondi: 60, and Veeranam: 50.20 mm rainfall.

The water level in the Poondi, Cholavaram, Puzhal (Redhills), Kannankottai Thervoy Kandigai, Chembarambakkam, and Veeranam reservoirs in Chennai and suburbs increased steadily, the Water Resources Department said.

The combined storage in these six dams stood at 41.61 per cent (5,502.17 mcft, as increase from 4,844.20 mcft on Tuesday) with a combined inflow of 6,789 cusecs water today. The combined storage on the same day last year was 9,142 mcft.

About 891 out of 14,139 irrigation tanks across the state have attained their full level capacity.

The RMC said in its bulletin that the depression over southwest Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 12 kmph during the past six hours and lay centered at 5.30 am today over the same region.

It is likely to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu - South Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Nellore, close to Chennai during the early morning of October 17.