Chennai, May 11 (IANS): The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast thunderstorms and intermittent rains in many areas of Tamil Nadu for the next 48 hours.

Chennai and its suburbs will receive intermittent to light showers on Wednesday and Thursday and sky conditions will be generally cloudy.

Cyclone 'Asani' is to reach the Kakinada - Vishakapattanam coast and will weaken further into a cyclonic storm.

The weather department said that the Cyclone would move towards north Andhra Pradesh and then weaken into a depression on Thursday.

P. Senthamarai Kannan, director of regional weather forecasting centre, IMD, in a statement said: "The intensity of rainfall will reduce on Wednesday and the system is moving further north of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday and its distance from Tamil Nadu will increase and hence the impact of the Cyclone is likely to remain for only one or two days."

Chennai city and its suburbs witnessed rains on Tuesday and the temperature has plummetted due to the effect of the cyclone Asani.

The maximum temperatures dropped on Tuesday to 29.7 degree Celsius and 29.1 degree Celsius in Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam which, according to weathermen was 6.3 and 8.2 degrees below normal.