Chennai witnesses heavy rains; Twitter flooded with videos of waterlogged roads

Chennai, Dec 30: Chennai witnessed heavy rains with strong winds on Thursday afternoon. An orange alert was issued for the capital city of Tamil Nadu with about 13cm rainfall till 5.30 pm.

MRC Nagar reportedly received 9 cm of rainfall while Meenambakkam received 4 cm of rainfall with Nungambakkam and Chidambaram getting 2 cm of rainfall followed by Sathyabama University and Anna University which received 1 cm rainfall till 4 pm.

"Though i expected rains today in the city, what happened today was completely freak event and some crazy stuff. There was not even a hint from even one of the 50 members of the ensembles of the heavy rains. On average 5 mm was expected from 50 members. Reality was 100-200 mm," weather blogger Pradeep John, popularly known as Tamil Nadu Weatherman, tweeted.

Several areas including Marina Beach, Nandanam, MRC Nagar, Mylapore, and other suburban areas witnessed cool winds and moderate rainfall. The rains are predicted to lash Chennai and the neighbourhood for the next six hours.

"Very heavy rainfall observed over Chennai & neighbourhood and rainfall activity likely to continue over the region during next 06 hours. Rainfall recorded from 0830-1945 IST of today (in mm). Chennai (MRC Nagar) - 198 Nungambakkam - 160," India Meteorological Department tweeted.

However, the rains cause traffic snarl and traffic jams were reported in Anna Salai, Adyar, S Thomas Mount, T Nagar and a few other areas.

Social media is flooded with the visuals of waterlogged roads. Also, some unverified clip claims that a portion of roof of VR Mall in Anna Nagar collpased due to heavy rains.