Cyclone Ditwah: Chennai Schools Shut Today? Field Report on the Rain & Orange Alert

The short answer, the immediate situation: Yes. Schools are closed in Chennai today.¹ Colleges too.

This whole mess started with Cyclone Ditwah. That thing is gone now, technically. It weakened. But the thing is… the remnant, this deep depression, it just moved slow. It’s stationed right there over the southwest Bay of Bengal.² It just keeps edging closer to the Chennai–Puducherry and southern Andhra Pradesh coastlines.³

That happened. And then the overnight rain followed.

And that rain? It kept coming.

So, the Chennai Collector, Rashmi Siddharth Zagade, made the call. All schools and colleges in the district—done for Wednesday, December 3.⁴ We’re talking continuous rain, we’re talking waterlogging in all those low-lying areas. It’s a safety thing, let’s be real

 The Wider Closure Situation (Beyond Chennai)

It’s not just Chennai trying to dodge the water. They shut down elsewhere, too.⁵ Jotted down these locations:

• Tiruvallur: Closed.⁶ Schools and colleges

• Chengalpattu: Closed.⁷ Same deal.

• Kancheepuram: Closed.⁸ Because you can’t have one without the others right now.

And here’s the kicker, the weather isn’t the only reason for closures today. You’ve got the local holidays on top of the storm drama.

• Tiruvannamalai: Holiday for Karthigai Deepam.⁹ Massive crowds, you know?

• Kanyakumari: Holiday for the St. Xavier Church Kottar Festival.¹⁰

Different reasons, same result: no school.

🌊 IMD: Orange Alert and the Slow Drift

So, the “remnant” of Ditwah—the deep depression—it’s just chilling. Still sitting over the Bay of Bengal, moving slowly towards the coast. This is why we’re seeing continuous, heavy spells. Gusty winds, too (¹¹$40–60\ \text{km/h}$).¹² Waterlogging, obviously.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) update? Orange Alert for Chennai and most of coastal Tamil Nadu. Coastal Andhra districts like Nellore are on it as well. Tirupati is sitting on a Yellow Alert, for now.

The minimum distance of that system from the coast? About $25\ \text{km}$. That’s close. Too close, probably.

The IMD is expecting it to keep moving slowly southwestwards—that’s toward the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts.¹³ And then? It’s supposed to weaken even further, into a well-marked low-pressure area over the next six hours.¹⁴ Supposed to. It’s an ongoing situation, you know?

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