The unusually-heavy rains over Tamil Nadu and other parts of southern peninsula may have been caused by La Nina and the positive phase of southern oscillation (SO), global scale circulation features.
Several parts of Karnataka have been receiving unseasonable rain damaging a variety of summer crops and forcing people to remain indoors in urban areas.
Widespread heavy rain, caused by an upper air cyclonic trough, lashed the State for the second day on Sunday, claiming six lives and extensively damaging standing crops in several districts.
A severe cyclonic storm hit Badarpur at midnight on Friday. The storm damaged a large numbers of houses, trees, electric posts, telephone wires etc in the town and adjacent villages.
China's northwestern region of Xinjiang was hit by a major earthquake and several strong aftershocks early Friday, the country's official media and earthquake monitoring centers reported.