Rain may dampen Diwali festivities in Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: Rain may play spoilsport on Diwali eve celebrations and for last-minute shoppers, as IMD has forecast thunderstorms with moderate to heavy over some areas of the city and the suburbs on Wednesday.
The low pressure over the Comorin area, which is bringing the rainfall, is likely to move and emerge in the southeast Arabian Sea. Meteorologists said the rain intensity may reduce on Diwali but private forecasters said rains may dampen festivities.
For the next 48 hours, IMD has forecast thunderstorms with moderate rain and heavy at times over some areas of Chennai and neighbourhoods with skies generally cloudy.
“We can expect rain on Wednesday evening. On Deepavali day, there may be some spells early in the morning or in the evening. Through the day, there may not be much rainfall,” said an IMD official. The agency has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in Kanchipuram and Chengalpet districts on Wednesday and heavy rainfall on Thursday.
According to IMD, the low-pressure system bringing the rains is likely to emerge into the southeast Arabian Sea during the next 24 hours. Thereafter it is likely to move north-northwestwards before it becomes more marked during the subsequent 48 hours. In its 8.30pm update, the agency also said there is a trough, an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure, at mean sea level from the lowpressure area over Comorin and neighbourhood to West central Bay of Bengal off south Andhra Pradesh coast across Gulf of Mannar and Tamilnadu coast persists.
The intense spells on Monday and early Tuesday morning left 34.3mm and 41.2mm in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam stations till 8.30am on Tuesday and 2.4mm and 0.1mm till 5.30pm as on and off spells continued through the evening. This rain pattern may continue on Wednesday.
Skymet Weather, in its post said, “Chennai is expected to see some rains with a few heavy spells lashing on the day of Deepavali.”