'Dry storm' for the water-starved

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, DEC. 1. The `very severe cyclonic storm' ultimately turned out to be a `dry storm' for water-starved people in the northern coastal districts of the state but senior meteorologists see nothing unusual in it.

What came as a surprise to many including a section of weathermen was that despite being located in the vicinity of the storm zone, Chennai and Cuddalore experienced little rain at the time of the storm crossing the coast. Cuddalore, during the 24 hours ending 8-30 a.m. on Thursday, registered a mere 16 mm whereas Chennai recorded 44 mm. ``We do admit that these rainfall figures do not represent adequately the cyclonic situation'', the weathermen say.

Between October 1 and November 22, the five northern coastal districts - Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Villupuram and Cuddalore - received around 220 mm of rainfall against the expected 454 mm, a deficiency of 51 per cent.

Even from the evening of Tuesday, several Chennai citizens nursed doubts about heavy rainfall in the city. The sky remained overcast but there were no signs of rain. At that time, the weather office said the rainfall activity would pick up from night but in fact, it did not.

In the end, it was the interior parts of the state which benefitted from the storm. Barring Chidambaram and Nagapattinam, the chief amounts of rainfall were recorded by the interior areas such as Sirkali, Salem and Papanasam in Thanjavur district, which were not expected to receive as intense downpours as in the case of the coastal northern parts.

However, senior meteorologists recall that in November 1992, when a cyclone crossed the coast near Tuticorin, the port city registered only 5 cm of rain but Ambasamudram, about 85 km away, recorded as high as 37 cm in a single day. ``So, it is not an unusual feature that Salem and Mettur receive high rainfalls now whereas Chennai and Cuddalore go dry''.

They also point out that there are no hard and fast rules about cyclones. ``No two cyclonic systems can be alike'', they say.

Describing the latest cyclonic storm as a wind- generating system, they say there are different varieties of the storm. While some of them produce rain, some others only heavy winds. There are incidents of such wind-generating storms crossing north Tamil Nadu-south Andhra coast in the past. In November 1989, a storm crossed the coast near Kavali, located in the Nellore- Ongole belt of Andhra Pradesh, and the wind speed was of the order of 240 km per hour, causing extensive damage but producing insignificant rainfall. The storm, which crossed the coast near Cuddalore on Wednesday, generated wind whose speed was in the range of 90 kmph to 110 kmph.

Meteorologists maintain that features of the latest `cyclonic storm' such as central pressure, cloud configuration orientation and movement did characterise that it was a strong cyclonic system. ``There is no one to entertain doubts about it on this score, though rain was not as much as we all wanted''.

Despite the cyclonic storm causing widespread disappointment, the city residents can still hope to receive rain in the remaining period of the northeast monsoon. ``As the cyclonic system moved westwards, it did not disturb easterly winds, which may bring rain'', the meteorologists say, adding that the monsoon normally lasts till the third week of December and, on some occasions, even upto the first week of January.

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