The skies over Chennai remained overcast on Thursday, surprising residents in a few areas like OMR, Kelambakkam and Siruseri with sudden showers in the afternoon. This respite, however, is expected to be short-lived, according to the Regional Meteorological Department.

The latest bulletin from the RMD maintains that heat wave conditions are likely to prevail at isolated places over north Tamil Nadu, in districts like Tiruvallur, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Madurai, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Tiruchirappalli, and in Puducherry.

Chennai is likely to experience partly cloudy sky conditions for the next two days with maximum and minimum temperatures around 40 and 30 degree Celsius respectively.

Light to moderate rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Tamil Nadu in Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Dindigul and Theni districts for the next four days until June 24. On June 21 and 22, heavy rain is likely over isolated places in the state.

Yet, Chennaities eagerly welcomed the scanty showers, posting videos and pictures on social media.

#ChennaiRain pic.twitter.com/MTespdL1Ry

— Stalin SP (@Stalin__SP) June 20, 2019

Thank! God's Mercy
It's a Rain in Chennai
St Thomas Mount#chennairains #ChennaiWaterScarcity #ChennaiWaterCrisis #WaterScarcity #WaterCrisis #WaterCrisisinChennai #water #chennairain #weather #WeatherUpdate #Chennai #TamilNadu #india pic.twitter.com/VUAg6qbTvD

— JOAN LOUIS (@Joanlouis14_) June 20, 2019

#Tharamani #ChennaiRain #Rain pic.twitter.com/srD9QhvAoO

— Munificent (@_uvt_) June 20, 2019

Rains in Padur near Kelambakkam now. Siruseri too is getting rains. Southern parts of OMR and ECR in Chennai city is getting rains now. Clouds are moving from sw to ne, other parts of city might get showers too. pic.twitter.com/af5ZnydcUW

— TamilNadu Weatherman (@praddy06) June 20, 2019

Chennai-based weather blogger Srikanth tells TNM that the sudden rains may not develop into a longer system. “The heat wave will only gradually reduce. Even today, the temperatures touched 40 degree Celsius in Nungambakkam. There’s a low pressure forming in the Bay of Bengal, but this will only head towards Odisha during the south west monsoon season,” he says.

The city, however, can expect brief, isolated spells of rain. “The entire city might not receive rains but over the next couple of days we can expect isolated spells,” he adds.

Pradeep John, who goes by TN Weatherman, wrote, “Each place in the city will get at least 2-3 rainy days in the coming spell.”