Chennai likely to get a wet spell this week – Times of India

CHENNAI: Weak westerly winds, one of the factors, that has delayed the onset of the monsoon in other parts of the country may be good news for Chennai, as the city has chances of rainfall and thunderstorms at least for three days this week.
Weathermen said the city and its suburbs may receive late evening or night showers due to convection between June 2 and 5.
This is due to the convection in the interior regions of Tamil Nadu, supported by moisture laden easterly winds, during the evenings and the activity shifting to coastal areas later in the night.
While the IMD has revised the onset date for southwest monsoon to June 3, private forecasters and bloggers said strong westerlies, one of the conditions for the monsoon, may set in by June 7.
The IMD has forecast maximum and minimum temperatures to hover at 40C and 28C for the next 48 hours with the city and the suburbs mostly having cloudy skies, meteorologists at the agency said Chennai and surrounding areas may receive spells between June 3 and 5.
“There are good chances of rainfall in Chennai in the second half of the week. This will be mostly convective rain which may start in the interiors of the state and move to the coastal areas in the night,” said N Puviarasan, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, IMD. “This is because westerlies are not strong. So the land heats up during the day and by afternoon the easterlies enter bringing the moisture. This results in convection,” he added. On Sunday night, the city received surprise showers.
Chennai, which is part of the rain shadow region, does not receive rain from the southwest monsoon but gets rain when there is a break in the wet spell in other parts of the country. The city receives an average 434.1mm rainfall in the June-September season, which is 31% of its annual rainfall.
Meteorologists said at present several atmospheric conditions required for the onset of the monsoon has not been met. Puviarasan said westerlies should be at 4.5km altitude, rainfall is needed in 60% of the stations in Kerala for two days and the outgoing longwave radiation should be low.
Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist, Skymet Weather said after the cyclones on the west and east coast, there is no significant system or trigger to pull the monsoon winds. Further, a cyclonic circulation over east central Arabian sea is also restricting the westerlies. The private forecaster, however, announced the arrival of monsoon on May 30. However, some IMD experts said it may be a shallow onset of southwest monsoon on June 3.
Weather blogger Pradeep John said Chennai may cross its average rainfall for June. “Between June 2 and 5, Chennai has the possibility of good spells,” he said.