It poured, but Met office couldn’t register

  • | Saturday | 20th October, 2018

“What we saw was convective rain — sudden, intense and for shorter period. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 31 °C and 24°C respectively Rainfall generally varies even at street level, which we cannot measure. Apart from the weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam, we have rain gauges at seven places but we collect readings only once a day in the morning,” an IMD official said.An official said IMD also got data from manual gauges maintained by commissionerate of revenue administration, but not all are in working condition. For instance, rainfall recorded around 50km is considered valid for claiming agriculture insurance,” said S R Ramanan, former IMD official.For the next 24 hours, IMD has forecast generally cloudy skies, rain or thundershower is likely to occur in some areas.

CHENNAI: If the sudden downpour flooding the streets in and around Madipakkam on Friday morning was not enough, residents were left scratching their heads when IMD said it had not recorded any rainfall in the area till early evening.But later in the evening, weathermen said their station in Meenambakkam, nearly 10km from the localities that received thundershowers, recorded about 60.2mm of rain.“Our rain gauges can measure a minimum of 0.1mm rainfall. Apart from the weather stations in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam, we have rain gauges at seven places but we collect readings only once a day in the morning,” an IMD official said.An official said IMD also got data from manual gauges maintained by commissionerate of revenue administration, but not all are in working condition. Further, the doppler radar in the port trust is not functioning in its full capacity, the official said.However, for the city residents, the rain was a good sign, as IMD said southwest monsoon was likely to withdraw on Saturday and the much-anticipated northeast monsoon may set in within 48 hours. “We may declare northeast monsoon by this weekend,” an official said.On Friday, there was a thunderstorm in parts of south Chennai for nearly an hour, but the rest of the city remained largely cloudy. “What we saw was convective rain — sudden, intense and for shorter period. Rainfall generally varies even at street level, which we cannot measure. For instance, rainfall recorded around 50km is considered valid for claiming agriculture insurance,” said S R Ramanan, former IMD official.For the next 24 hours, IMD has forecast generally cloudy skies, rain or thundershower is likely to occur in some areas. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 31 °C and 24°C respectively

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