Tamil Nadu has received 28% less than normal rainfall up until now from the south-west monsoon season. According to reports, the expected rainfall for the state from the south-west monsoon is 99.5mm, while the actual rainfall that Tamil Nadu received is at 71.7mm.
The south-west monsoon is not the main rainy season of Tamil Nadu. Usually making landfall by June 1, the south-west monsoon brings copious amounts of rainfall to Kerala, Karnataka, Mumbai and the ghat areas of Tamil Nadu like Coimbatore and Nilgiris. This season, only a few areas in Tamil Nadu like Ariyalur, Dharmapuri, Karur, Tiruppur, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai etc. got surplus rains till Saturday. Ariyalur received nine centimetres of rainfall on Saturday while Vandavasi in Tiruvannamalai district recorded rainfall of eight centimetres on Saturday. Gingee (Villupuram) and Valparai (Coimbatore) recorded rainfall of seven centimetres each while Uthiramerur (Kanchipuram) and Ambur (Vellore) received six centimetres of rainfall on Saturday.
Chennai has received 103.1mm rainfall as against the expected 131.8mm, which marks a deficit of 14%. Coimbatore, which normally receives enough rainfall during the south-west monsoon, received 75% less than normal rain this season. The city received 78.4mm of rain since June 1, while the normal rainfall is 319mm. The story is similar in Madurai, which recorded a 47% deficit. Trichy also recorded a 72% decrease in the rainfall.
However, dams in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu have received decent inflow over the past few days. The water level at the Servalar dam in Tirunelveli district went up by over 16 feet in a single day and the water level in Papanasam dam went up by over three feet.