In a record for April, city sizzles at 40.8°C, Met predicts hotter days

CHENNAI: For the first time in 10 years, the April temperature in the city breached the 40°Celsius mark and the weathermen say it will get hotter in the next two days. Incidentally, the record of 40.8°C on Friday came as the world celebrated Earth Day.
The temperature had risen by five degrees from 35.8°C on Thursday to 40.8°C on Friday.
The last time the 40°C mark was breached in April was in 2007 when the mercury shot up to 42.1°C.Earlier, on April 27, 1908, the city recorded a maximum temperature of 42.8°C. After the temperature peaked at 1am, the sea breeze set in around 1.40pm, cooling things down a bit.
“For the first time in weeks we could tell exactly when the sea breeze set in. All these days, it was too weak to be recorded,“ said a duty officer at the Regional Meteorological Centre.
“If not for the sea breeze, the temperature would have further gone higher,“ the officer added. Officials at IMD say April is a transitional month and that such trends are usually noticed during June. When the southwest monsoon arrives in Kerala in June, winds start blowing from the west to east. However, the Western Ghats removes the moisture from the wind and all that reaches Tamil Nadu are dry, hot winds. They remain strong enough to pre vent sea breeze cool the city .“Though this is not southwest monsoon, it was the westerlies caused the temperature to go above 40 degrees,“ said director of area warning cy clone centre S Balachandar.
The Met department's three-day forecast shows this will be the pattern. “We can expect the temperature to go up to 42 degrees Celsius,“ said Balachandar.
Wilting under the effects of the sudden rise in temperature, many Chennaiites took to social networking sites like Twitter for relief. “I'm surprised I did not spontaneously combust today!“ posted @gig7gal. Others observed the irony of it. “Unbelievable heat and its earth day too!“ posted N Bharanidharan, while Niveda Manohar said, “Bravery is sitting on the bike after its been in the sun for hours“ with a hashtag #TheStruggleIsReal and #ChennaiSummer. For a few, the sweat was more bothersome. “Feels like I had a shower and did not dry myself,“ said Saidapet resident Poovannan.