Beware the ides of March
JULIUS CAESAR ACT 1, SCENE 2, 15–19
In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, a Soothsayer warns the Roman emperor about Ides of March, 15th day of March, to be aware of a possible threat to his life. In the context of weather ides of March is close to the period where we can look forward to summer conditions getting ready to spread its tentacles over the Indian Sub Continent. As we have mentioned often parts of West Coast sees summer conditions first under the influence of the Easterlies while gradually rest of the country falls into it starting from Mid March.
Many parts of Konkan Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan saw day time maximum temperatures more than 5 degrees above normal yesterday. The IMD Observatory at Colaba in South Mumbai nearly touched 40°C indiacting the summer conditions prevailing in the region. Closer home the last couple of days have seen parts of West Interior TN getting close to 40°C with Erode & Karur Paramathi recording 39°C yesterday. Things are only expected to get bad from today with more places including North Interior Tamil Nadu coming under summer conditions.
The seasonal Easterlies modulate day time conditions over many parts of the state during this time of the year while keeping the temperatures very much under check along the coast though humidity is indeed a concern. Weather models indicate Easterlies are expected to weaken for the next few days and most parts of Peninsular India is likely to come under drier continental winds which will possibly increase the day time heat across the region. Starting from today for most of this week many parts of interior Tamil Nadu is likely to see day time max temperatures stay around 40°C mark. Even Coastal places like Chennai may see increased heat though there is still enough time for us to worry about searing summer which mostly coincides with seasonal strengthening of Westerlies.
There is some good news though for places like Kerala in the west coast which was under some intense spell of heat for the past few days. LWD (Line of Wind Discontinuity) conditions are seen developing which is likely to aid the gradual entry of Mango showers for the state and adjoining parts of Karnataka & Tamil Nadu. Isolated places in Kerala could see moderate to slightly heavy spell of showers later today in the afternoon / evening.
This brings to another interesting observation in how weather events are talked about. “வெப்பசலனம்” though in principle a convective development owes a lot to the role of wind instabilities in creating thunderstorms. Similarly in the context of heat wave conditions the role of surface winds is often under rated. The direction / absence / strengthening of surface winds brings along with it different manifestations of heat during summer days.
Before we close our post, do read more about the “Ides” as well. Not all Ides fell on the 15th of the month. Julius Caesar had a complex calendar to say the least.