CHENNAI: Cyclone Ditwah, which weakened into a deep depression over Bay of Bengal on a breezy Sunday evening, surprised residents on Monday by unleashing one of the wettest mornings of the season.The cyclone, stripped of much of its cloud cover on Sunday, moved northward through the Bay of Bengal. It staged a resurgence overnight, amassing moisture. Drifting slowly northward at 5km/h and edging closer to the coast, the weather system thickened cloud cover over city and suburbs, setting off steady prolonged showers from 5am. It dumped torrents over some parts of north Chennai and neighbouring districts Low-lying areas were flooded, children walked to school drenched, and traffic came to a crawl in most parts of the city. Around 10am, when most people were dodging potholes in traffic bottlenecks, India Meteorological Department reinstated an orange (very heavy rain) alert for the city and a red (extremely heavy rain) alert for Tiruvallur. Between 8.30am and 7.30pm, the city recorded “moderate” rainfall of 10cm, though it was heavy in some parts of North Chennai. Nungambakkam recorded 9.45cm, and Meenambakkam recorded 6.2cm. Ennore topped GCC records with 13cm of rain from 8:30am to 2pm, while Parry’s Corner, Ice House, Madhavaram, Saligramam, and Vadapalani each surpassed 10cm.On Sunday evening, when the cyclone weakened and the city was relatively dry, IMD withdrew the alert for Chennai to yellow (heavy rain) and Tiruvallur to orange. On Monday, weathermen said the system was likely to linger 30km-40km offshore along the coast and forecast heavy rain on Tuesday in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, and Chengalpet.Cyclone Ditwah’s path, however, continued to be a topic of debate. While IMD said the system would fade into a depression and cross land near Nellore early on Tuesday, independent forecasters said there would be scattered bursts in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpet, and Kancheepuram. Blogger Pradeep John said he expected the clouds to regain as long as it was close to city coast. “The depression is going to stay for the next 36 hours near Chennai itself,” he said. Ditwah is neither able to move west nor east, he said. If this westerly trough influence moves away on Wednesday, then the cyclone will move west into TN or south AP coast into the land as a weakened cyclone, he said.
