In what will bring respite to the searing heat in several parts of the state, the Meteorological Department on Thursday announced that Tamil Nadu will receive slight showers in the next 24 hours.  

Speaking to reporters, Balachandran, Director of Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai said that rains or thundershowers are likely during the evenings and nights for the next five days over isolated places in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

“The Southwest monsoon (SWM) is strong over the southern Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Due to movements of the easterlies and the westerlies, the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and some interior districts have received rains in the past 24 hours,” he said.

He added that in the next 24 hours, north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and isolated areas of south Tamil Nadu will get slight showers and a few places in north Tamil Nadu may get heavy rains.

“Chennai and suburbs will have cloudy skies and might receive slight rains occasionally,” he said.

On Wednesday, Chennai’s temperatures plummeted from around 40 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius as it received moderate to heavy spells of rains. Chennai received 3 cms rainfall on Wednesday while its suburbs Kelambakkam, Cholavaram etc received 5-7 cms.

According to IMD, in 2017, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry received an excess rainfall of 29% from the South West monsoon in comparison with the Long Period Average (LPA). The highest rainfall that Tamil Nadu got from the Southwest monsoon in 2017 was in September. Tamil Nadu got its highest rainfall from the Southwest monsoon in 2017 since 1996.

Unlike the rest of India, Tamil Nadu gets its annual share of rainfall from the Northeast monsoon between October and December every year. However, districts in west Tamil Nadu like Coimbatore, Salem, Erode, Dharmapuri, Namakkal, Theni and Nilgiris receive their share of rainfall from SWM every year. IMD has predicted that the Southwest monsoon this year will be normal.