CYCLONE MANDOUS

• With the cyclonic storm Mandous brewing over the Bay of Bengal likely to hit the north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts around Saturday morning, intense rain may lash many districts of Tamil Nadu between Thursday and Saturday.
• The weather system may produce extremely heavy rain in a few districts on Friday.
• Mandous is likely to cross between Puducherry and Sriharikota early on Saturday. Weather models have predicted that it may cross the coast as a cyclonic storm.
• Places along the coast may experience squally winds with a speed of 65-75 kmph and going up to 85 kmph during landfall.
• Rain may lash from Thursday afternoon and pick up gradually. Heavy rain, above 21 cm, may peak on Friday in one or two places in Puducherry, Villupuram, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu.
• It may continue till Saturday afternoon until the system moves inland, he said.
• While four places have been issued red-colour coded warning for torrential rain, the north coastline from Tiruvallur to Nagapattinam has been warned of strong winds on Friday.
• The weather system has raised hopes of bridging the rain deficit over the State this monsoon season.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB