As the city and its suburbs continue to remain under the tight grip of sweltering heat, May has ended on a hot note. Chennai experienced one of its hottest Mays in the past five years as the day temperature soared beyond 40-degree mark on many days.
This May, the city experienced nearly 10 hot days, when the mercury level soared above 40 degree Celsius. City residents had to grapple with scorching weather as a heat wave swept across the city for six consecutive days. The mercury level soared above 40 degree Celsius on several days during mid-May, according to the officials of the meteorological department.
Southern suburbs hit
Residents of southern suburbs were worst affected as they had to bear with higher day temperatures for nearly a fortnight, compared to their counterparts in city. The weather observatory in Meenambakkam has recorded 15 days with above average temperature, which is the highest in the last five years.
On Wednesday too, the maximum temperature soared to 40.7 degree Celsius in Meenambakkam whereas Nungambakkam recorded 39.4 degree Celsius.
According to S. Balachandran, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, Chennai may not have much respite from the sweltering heat for two more days as the maximum temperature would continue to hover around 40 degree Celsius till Friday. The lack of cloud cover and strong westerlies will have an impact on the day temperature. Some parts of the State will experience showers as an impact of onset of Southwest monsoon.
Experts and weather bloggers note that the lack of thunderstorm development and uninterrupted solar radiation had led to the hot weather this May. Y.E.A. Raj, former deputy director general of meteorology, Chennai, said the day temperature that peaked above the 40-degree mark on many days persisted only for a few hours because of the sea breeze that set in as early as 11.30 a.m. or noon.
Residents of suburbs would have felt more heat because the maximum temperature would have soared higher before the sea breeze reached their localities. Meenambakkam always records more hot days compared to the rest of the city as it takes one hour more for the sea breeze to cool the mercury level.
‘June to be hot too’
“June is equally a hot month like May and the average temperature is almost the same of 37 degree Celsius in June too,” he added.
Weather blogger K.Srikanth recalls that Chennai experienced its hottest May in 2008 with 21 hot days. Residents of suburbs experienced searing heat as the temperature remained above 40-degree Celsius for over 10 consecutive days in 2012 too.
