When freak rain pounded Coimbatore

Coimbatore: Last Wednesday will go down in the history books as the day when Coimbatore recorded the highest rainfall within 24 hours in January.
The district recorded 112.8mm rain, which is nearly four times the 33.4mm recorded in January 1985. In fact, the evening rain surpassed the highest amount of rainfall recorded in the whole month of January.
According to the India meteorological department, as the northeast monsoon or rain bearing winds recede by December-end, January should record nil or extremely light drizzles.The highest amount of rainfall recorded throughout January was 64mm in 1985.
However, that record was also broken on Wednesday evening. “Coimbatore so far has recorded 135.4mm, because it received 22.6mm rainfall from January 3,” said Pradeep John, who runs the Tamil Nadu Weatherman blog.
The rare phenomenon of heavy rain in January has been attributed to a convergence of moisture-bearing westerly winds and easterly winds. “There is a western disturbance detected in the Arabian Sea, which is bringing westerly winds into Kerala, Karnataka and western parts of Tamil Nadu. This converged with rain-bearing easterly winds, blowing in due to an upper air circulation forming in the Bay of Bengal,” John told TOI. “This is why there was such a heavy rain.”
Weather experts said the district is likely to receive more rain until Tuesday. “The northeast monsoon has extended into January and the upper air circulation over the Bay of Bengal will continue to persist for the next 48 to 72 hours,” said director of Agro Climate Research Centre at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University S P Ramanathan. “There will be light rain.”
If this happens, January may record close to 160mm rainfall, which is more than what was recorded in November and December individually.