Heavy rains in Tamil Nadu, 2 districts announce holiday for schools, colleges 

Senior officials announced that schools and colleges in the districts of Nagapattinam and Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu have been closed on Thursday, February 2, due to the ongoing, heavy rain. According to them, the Nagapattinam district declared a one-day holiday for schools and colleges while the Thiruvarur district only announced the closure of schools. Notably, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will experience light to moderate rainfall on Wednesday and Thursday (February 1 and 2). "Isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over south Tamil Nadu on 1st and 2nd February," it added, stated a report by ANI.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal moved west-southwest during the afternoon of Wednesday, February 1, and crossed the Sri Lankan coast.

In accordance with the IMD, the depression over the Southwest Bay of Bengal moved west-southwestwards at a speed of 7 kmph over the course of the previous six hours and was centred at 5.30 am on Wednesday over the same area near latitude 8.2°N and longitude 82.6°E, about 110 km east-southeast of Batticaloa (Sri Lanka), 160 km east-southeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), as reported by ANI.