Right from start of the year the Core Chennai City (Old City Areas) was missing all the spells and in South West Monsoon Nungambakkam ended with just 293 mm rainfall in 4 months (lowest rains in last 10 years) while Meenambakkam recorded whopping 597 mm in the same period. You can see twice the amount of rainfall had fallen other parts of Chennai while core areas had not much luck, it happened to miss all the Damal Dumeel Storms in SWM. Infact in all my posts i started to quote Nungambakkam as cursed or desert. This all started to change from October, in North East Monsoon, the places close to sea always has the advantage than the places over inland areas.
The morning of 29th October was a special event for Chennai, the Damal Dumeels brought the memories of November 23, 2015, when dryline-wetline event happened with thunders. Not often you would have seen such thunder in your lifetime, it was very intense ones. The dry air mixed with the moist air and the collusion created so much instability which resulted in such high number of thunders.
The rainfall was split by 6.00 am cut-off time and the rainfall which fell after 6.00 am on 29th October was added into 30th October rainfall. Technically, the rains started at around 3.00 am on 29th October and fell within a space of 6 hours, Mylapore got close to 300 mm and most of which fell in a space of 3 hours. Such was the intensity of the rains, blinding ones at times. The last time a place in Chennai crossed 250 mm rainfall in 24 hours was in November 3rd, 2017, when same Myalpore (DGP Office) recorded whopping 296 mm rainfall which too fell in few hours time.
It was perfect balancing act of Nature for the Core City, indeed and the curse seems to be lifted.
More good spells are due in this 2020 Monsoon. Some spells will be always remembered by me for lifetime for pure uniqueness and my personal favorites over the last 30 years
- 1996 June 13-14 – 600 mm in 36 hrs (Cyclone)
- 1996 September 11 – 160 mm in 12 hrs (100 mm fell in an hr – Thunderstorms)
- 2000 February 24 – 150 mm in 12 hrs (Low Pressure)
- 2005 October 27 – 420 mm in 24 hrs (Deep Depression)
- 2005 December 2 – 250 mm in 24 hrs (Baaz Cyclone)
- 2006 October 27-28 – 300 mm in 48 hrs (Ogni Cyclone)
- 2008 November 26-28 – 250 mm in 48 hrs (Nisha Cyclone)
- 2010 May 19 – 180 mm in 15 hrs (Laila Cyclone)
- 2011 August 24 – 150 mm in 6 hours (Bubble Thunderstorms)
- 2014 June 10 – 60 mm (Thunderstorms from Sea)
- 2014 November 18 – 160 mm (onset spell)
- 2015 April 15 – 125 mm in 3 hours in Tharamani (Thunderstorms from Sea)
- 2015 November (4 spells) on 8-9, 12-13, 15-16, 23 – 1000 mm for the month
- 2015 December 1 – 500 mm in 24 hrs in Tambaram (Trough of Low)
- 2017 November 2 ~ 300 mm in 6 hrs in Mylapore (Low Pressure)
- 2020 October 29 ~ 300 mm in 6 hrs in Mylapore (UAC – collision of dry & wet air)
