Are Chennai schools closed today? City on orange alert for Cyclone Ditwah-driven rain

CYclone Ditwah has wedged day-by-day lifetime crosswise Tamil Nadu and neighbouring areas, and schools in several parts of the tell, including Chennai, have been closed in the past days.As the cyclone moves northwards towards the Chennai coast and Andhra Pradesh, it is expected to bring additional rainfall to the region, despite having become a deep depression. This will continue to affect daily life for now. Keeping that in mind, schools and colleges in several districts of Tamil Nadu are closed until further notice.Are schools in Chennai closed today?According to the order by the Chennai Collector Rashmi Siddharth Zagade, all schools and colleges in the district will remain closed on Wednesday, December 3, due to continuous overnight rain and waterlogging in low-lying areas.Not just Chennai, several other districts in the state have also closed the schools and colleges, at least for the day. These include Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, and Kancheepuram.The institutions in some districts are also closed due to local holidays. Tiruvannamalai is observing Karthigai Deepam, while the district of Kanyakumari has a local holiday marking the St. Xavier Church Kottar Festival.Chennai and wider Tamil Nadu weather forecastThe remnant of Cyclone Ditwah, now a deep depression, is stationed over the southwest Bay of Bengal and is expected to move closer to the Chennai–Puducherry and southern Andhra Pradesh coastline. This has resulted in continuous heavy to extremely heavy spells with gusty winds (40–60 km/h) and waterlogging in several coastal regions.Chennai and most of coastal Tamil Nadu are on an orange alert, according to the latest update from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The alert is also active in coastal Andhra Pradesh districts, including Nellore, Prakasam, Bapatla, and extends up to Krishna. Tirupathi remains under a yellow alert, along with most of Andhra Pradesh.The IMD said in a post on X in the early hours of Wednesday that the depression over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts moved slowly south-southwestwards with the speed of three kmph and lay centered at 11:30 pm 100 km south of Chennai (India). The minimum distance of the Centre of the depression from north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts is about 25 km, IMD said.“It is very likely to move slowly southwestwards towards the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts and weaken into a Well-marked low-pressure area during next six hours,” it added.