Heavy rains lash Chennai, TN dists

Red alert was issued for Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu until Wednesday

- @ Chennai

THE northeast monsoon has officially set in on Tuesday, and the well marked low pressure area has intensified into a depression on Tuesday evening and is expected to cross the coast between Puducherry and Nellore near Chennai on October 17 morning.

The low pressure area moved west-northwestwards and intensified into a depression and lay over southwest Bay of Bengal, about 490 km east-southeast of Chennai, 500 km east-southeast of Puducherry, and 590 km southeast of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. Isolated heavy to very heavy rain is likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal for the next three days with extremely heavy rain at one or two places during the next two days, S Balachandran, Deputy Director General, RMC, Chennai, said.

A red alert has been issued for Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts until Wednesday. The downpour is expected to intensify on Wednesday and subside from Thursday, the RMC said.