Chennai likely to receive light rainfall for next two days

CHENNAI: Monday brought surprise showers that provided much needed respite from the searing heat in parts of the city. The absence of sea breeze on Sunday had kept day temperatures high well into the evening.
Weathermen said the city and its suburbs are likely to experience light rain in the evenings over the next two days, though temperatures will soar during the day. Bloggers too said day temperatures will remain high in the coming days. On Monday afternoon, dark clouds loomed over several suburban areas before sharp spells of rain came down. Some areas in the core city had cloud cover and experienced light spells. Meenambakkam recorded 2.4mm of rain, West Tambaram 6mm, Anna University 7.5mm, NIOT Pallikaranai 29.8mm, Taramani 1mm, YMCA Nandanam 1.5, ACS Medical College, Kancheepuram, 3.5mm, and Poonamallee 7mm. The rain, though mild, came as a big relief as earlier in the day Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam had recorded 40.1 degrees Celsius and 40.8 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal.
"This is normal convective activity for this season. We can expect such rainfall on and off in the afternoon hours till the onset of the southwest monsoon if the conditions turn favourable. Day temperatures too may be high for the next three days especially in some pockets of north coastal Tamil Nadu," said N Senthamarai Kannan, director, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
"After the monsoon arrives, temperatures may drop as the westerlies or monsoon winds will have moisture, which will lead to cloudy weather," he added.
Blogger Pradeep John said on Sunday temperatures stood at 36 degrees Celsius at 7pm because of the absence of sea breeze. "There are chances of rainfall for the next two days. Weather models show that the temperatures may remain high in the evenings again on Thursday as the sea breeze will be absent," he said.