Chennai: With heavy rain lashing many parts of Tamil Nadu, a holiday was declared for schools in six districts, including Chennai.
According to the forecasts from the weather service, this is the heaviest rainfall that Tamil Nadu has seen in the month of June since the year 1996.
Schools will be closed in the following districts in the state of Tamil Nadu: Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Ranipet, and Thiruvallur.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms have been falling in these six areas since Sunday night and have persisted until Monday morning.
Meenambakkam weather station recorded 14 cm of rainfall till 5:30 Monday morning. Automatic rain gauges (ARGs) in Taramani, Nandanam, and Chembarambakkam reported 12 cm of rain and 11 cm of rain, respectively, on Monday morning.
Weathermen predicted rain to continue till Tuesday and the IMD predicted the downpour in 13 districts, including Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Perambalur and Tiruchi till Tuesday.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has issued an Orange alert for Chennai and the surrounding regions, signifying that they expect heavy to extremely heavy rainfall.
A cyclonic ciculation is still going on over the Southeast Bay of Bengal between 3.1 and 5.8 km above mean sea level, and this is causing heavy rain.
In many areas of Chennai, heavy rainfall has caused flooding, and traffic has been disrupted.—Inputs from Agencies