Heat in Chennai may come down next week

CHENNAI: The arrival of hot and dry north westerlies and delayed entry of seabreeze made Meenambakkam observatory the hottest in the state, for the fourth time this month, on Saturday with 41.1 ° C. At 41 ° C, temperatures in Nungambakkam observatory crossed 40-degree mark for a record eighth this month. After the record temperatures, convective rain brought relief in some suburban areas in the evening.
Weathermen have forecast temperatures light to moderate rainfall and temperatures to touch a maximum of 40 °C at least for the next two days. Private forecasters and bloggers said direction of winds may change from northwesterlies to southwesterlies by next mid-week which may bring the temperatures down. On Saturday, after temperatures crossed 4 and 3.8 degrees above normal in the two city observatories, many parts of southern suburbs received sudden showers. Meenambakkam recorded 14mm, West Tambaram, 3.5mm, Taramani 11.5mm, Poonamallee 3.5mm.
For the next 48 hours, the city and the suburbs may receive light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning over some areas. Maximum and minimum temperatures may hover at 40 deg C and 29-30 ° C.
"The southwesterly winds were pulled towards the cyclone over Arabian Sea. This and the delayed arrival of seabreeze caused the temperatures to stay above 40°. This will change in another four days when southwesterlies will arrive, as the cyclone will move away, and our day temperatures may drop to 37-38 degrees which is the season's normal temperature. But the weather may not be windy, so we may still feel hot," said N Senthamarai Kannan, director, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.
On Saturday, along with Meenambakkam, Thiruthani too registered 41.1 deg C on Saturday. Weathermen said Meenambakkam recorded the highest maximum temperatures from June 1 to 3 with a record 42.6 ° C on June 3. The temperatures in Nungambakkam crossed 40-°mark for the eighth time on Saturday this month.
Previously, the observatory registered temperatures above 40 ° on 14 days in June 2019, six days in June 2014, nine days in 2012 and 10 days in 2009.