Chennai, Dec 9 (PTI) Cyclonic storm Mandous made landfall off Mamallapuram near here late on Friday influencing moderate to heavy rainfall in coastal Tamil Nadu.

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"The process of cyclonic storm's landfall has started, it is going on," Head-IMD Regional Meterological Centre, S Balachandran told PTI.

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Under the influence of the cyclonic storm's passage into land, moderate to heavy rainfall, accompanied by gale wind was witnessed in several coastal regions.

Mandous is all set to weaken, following the landfall, to a deep depression and later a depression on Saturday.

Mandous, pronounced 'man-dous' is an Arabic word and it means treasure box and the name was reportedly picked by the United Arab Emirates.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)