Chennai goes 191 days without rain, set to break 10-year record

CHENNAI: Two more days without rain and the city will break the record of having endured the longest dry spell in a decade. As of Saturday, Chennai has gone without rain for 191 days since the northeast monsoon last year. And going by the weathermen’s forecast, dry days are here to stay.

As the IMD has forecast that the temperature will be rising two to four degrees above normal on Sunday, experts are concerned about the rise in the number of days without rain, even as Chennai faces severe water scarcity.
In his recent online post, weather blogger Pradeep John said the city suffered 150-193 rainless days since 2010. Dry spell was between last day of northeast monsoon in the previous year and the first day of the southwest monsoon of the current year. Ironically, the highest number of rainless days was recorded before the 2015 flood from December 29, 2014 to July 10, 2015 (193 days).
While experts said high temperatures in Chennai were common in June, Pradeep John’s table showed that it was mostly in June the city has recorded rainfall ending the long dry spell.
“Why it is so hot in Chennai is because of the dry westerlies (winds from the west) blowing 22 hours a day. There is also lack of strong sea breeze. Low moisture is also a reason for lack of convective rain with dry westerlies moving in from west and northwest,” John said in his post.
On June 13, traces of rain brought some respite to the city’s suburbs. But the temperature shot up the following day. On Saturday, Nungambakkam station recorded 41.5°C and Meenambakkam registered 42.1°C. The IMD said maximum temperature is likely to be above normal by 2-4 degrees over certain parts of Tamil Nadu on Sunday, which includes Chennai and its neighbouring districts of Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai.
The city’s sky condition is likely to be partly cloudy over the next 48 hours and the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 41°C and 31°C.
However, experts said temperatures could drop by 2-3 degrees by the end of next week, when the southwest monsoon advances to interior regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra. “In 40 to 72 hours, Andhra Pradesh will begin receiving rain. By June 20, rains will spread to interior Maharashtra, when we could see a drop in temperature here,” said Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist, Skymet Weather. “We don’t expect rain in Chennai soon.”