Yesterday while presenting the state budget the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu announced the setting up of a dedicated weather monitoring & forecasting infrastructure for Tamil Nadu with investments to be made on improving the AWS / ARG Network, additional Radar Locations & bringing in super computing to develop better weather forecasts. In what is likely to be a watershed moment for the weather enthusiasts it gives a lot of pride & pleasure to say this intiative by the Government of Tamil Nadu is being made after taking inputs from various weather bloggers in an effort to create the roadmap for a Climate Resilient Tamil Nadu. We hope this is just the start of a new beginning in Governments & Institutions leveraging the passion shown by the weather bloggers in creating a weather wise community.
On the weather front the LPA over Equatorial & adjoining South Bay continues to amble along slowly and is expected to become a Well Marked Low today & intensity into a Depression 24 hours from now. Weather models continue to remain consistent on the journey of this pulse which is expected to become a cyclone on Monday. Moving along in a Northwards direction it is expected to brush the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and move further North towards Bangladesh / Myanmar though it remains to be seen if it actually reaches a coast.
As the LPA intensifies it is expected to absorb most of the moisture around Bay of Bengal leaving Peninsular India under clearer skies & dry weather conditions. This drier weather conditions along with the strengthening of the land winds from the west will increase the day time maximum temperatures over the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu including Chennai as the pulse moves Northward. With sea breeze influence expected to be negligible the afternoons could be dry with less humidity.
Meanwhile yesterday many places in Kerala saw moderate to heavy thunderstorm activity including parts of South Interior Karnataka & South TN. Conditions look good for more places to get rains out of these convective thunderstorms triggered by wind induced instabilities. Aided by the Bay Low the winds from the west is expected to push further East into the interior areas of Peninsular India dragging the zone of thunderstorms along with it to the places East of Western Ghats as well for the next few days.