Expect more rain in next few days

CHENNAI: The city’s residents, who had been sweltering in the heat for the past few days, got some relief when some areas received rain on Monday morning. The next two days, too are likely to see some rain. The reason, the weatherman says, is due to the sea breeze setting in unusually early. “It usually sets in around 2pm buton Monday, it setin around 11am,” said metrological department deputy director YEARaj.
Sea breeze clashes with weak south-westerly winds and leads to thundershowers, he said. “Such morning showers can be expected for the next few days," Raj said.
The rain on Monday was very isolated, he said. “There was no rain recorded in any other part of the state," Raj said. While Nungambakkam recorded 1mm of rainfall at 11.30 am, there was no rain in Meenambakkam. By 5.30 pm, the two places registered 2.7mm and 0.5 mm respectively.
Chennai, which gets around 400mm of rain from the southwest monsoon between June and September, has so far received about 200mm. This, say theweathermen,is normal.
In June, the late setting of the sea breeze made the average temperature through the day just 0.5 degrees lower than May even though there was a two degree difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures.
While July saw a one-degree dip in the average day temperature compared to June, August has been normal this year. “The average temperature is around 34 to 35 degrees Celsius. Only on a couple of days did the temperature go up to 37 degrees Celsius," said Raj.