January showers are rare in north Tamil Nadu. However, the state welcomed 2021 with heavy showers surprising its residents. On Tuesday, January 5, Chennai city and its suburbs saw incessant rainfall, with temperatures dropping in the city.
Several residents of the city took to social media to comment about the weather, and the sudden January showers creating a “winter weather” in the city.
I told my husband it is 'winter rain in Chennai' - it's dark and wet at 8 am - and he's laughing and laughing...
— Aparna Karthikeyan (@AparnaKarthi) January 5, 2021
Those two words and Chennai, who'd have thought!
What a cold intense rainy morning ! Haven't seen too much rains at this part of the year. #chennairains pic.twitter.com/2CKj1TiREr
— krithika sivaswamy (@krithikasivasw) January 5, 2021
It's almost as if I haven't left Kodaikanal. #ChennaiRains #ChennaiSnow
— S Poorvaja (@_poorvaja) January 5, 2021
With this blizzard raging over #Chennai I am glad I installed central heating #ChennaiWinter #ChennaiRains
— Sriram V (@MadrasMobile) January 5, 2021
Like music, this rain pic.twitter.com/BmI80J8HlX
— Aparna Karthikeyan (@AparnaKarthi) January 5, 2021
It's pouring hard in chennai. Very strange to have this kind of weather in Jan.
— KhushbuSundar (@khushsundar) January 5, 2021
What is with this nonstop rains Chennai? December mudinju pochu...pls to remember.
— Sunitha Sekar (@SunithaSekar) January 5, 2021
What sorcery is bringing rain to Chennai during January? #chennairain
— Anusha Sundar (@anusha16_) January 5, 2021
Guess location ? #chennairain pic.twitter.com/Tj35W2Sk4u
— Apoorva Jayachandran (@Jay_Apoorva18) January 5, 2021
view from office window #ChennaiRain pic.twitter.com/diA00wICxi
— Sushma Chappidi (@Raayancha) January 5, 2021
As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Chennai Nungambakkam received the highest rainfall in the city at 63 mm of rainfall for 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Tuesday. Between 8.30 am until 2.30 pm on Tuesday, Nungambakkam received 67mm rainfall.
Pradeep John, who handles the popular Tamil Nadu Weatherman blog, said the rains were the heaviest witnessed for the month of January in the city in over 100 years - since 1915. He pointed out that Chennai received seven times the amount of rainfall in a window of 15 hours for the month of January, which normally receives 20mm of rainfall.
Another popular weather blogger K Srikanth, handles the Chennai Rains weather blog said the rains were due to the La Niña effect.
“The La Niña effect basically leads to good monsoon. And the La Niña conditions can lead to the monsoon extending till after December, which is why we are seeing rains now,” explained K Srikanth.
Wind convergence near Chennai region and heavy spell possible around noon. pic.twitter.com/vDvku3NUr1
— Chennai Weather (@chennaiweather) January 5, 2021
The city is expected to receive moderate to light showers till mid January. However, Srikanth says that the intensity of the rains is high.
“We are perhaps seeing intense showers due to the interaction between the Western disturbances and the Easterly winds,” he explained.
La Nina, or “Little Girl” in Spanish, is associated with cooler sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. It is the inverse of El Niño in terms of ocean atmospheric conditions. In Tamil Nadu La Niña conditions can lead to good monsoon. However excessive rainfall can cause flooding in parts of the state. The northeast Monsoon covers over 50 percent of Tamil Nadu during October to December and the rainfall has extended to January now.
As per the Regional Meteorological Department forecast, Chennai, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, and few more districts in TN and Puducherry are likely to record heavy rain during the next 24 hours. Maximum and minimum temperature will be around 29 deg C and 22 deg C respectively.
According to the IMD forecast, intense convective clouds present over Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram districts have potential to cause intense rainfall in some areas in these districts during the next 6 hours, as per the 2.15pm bulletin.
Convective clouds are those clouds that are formed by the process of convection - which simply means warmer air rising since it is less dense than the surrounding atmosphere.