It has been nearly two weeks the maximum temperature at Karur Paramathi IMD observatory has been hovering around 39 degree celcius. During this period it has touched 40ºC four times including yesterday when it recorded 40.5ºC for the second time this year. Madurai AP observatory has also recorded 40 degree celcius twice during this period though it is slightly better off recording on an average about a degree or so lesser than Karur Paramathi.
While coastal places like Chennai has been better off though the high humidity present in coastal places makes is uncomfortable during the afternoons even if the absolute temperatures do not reach the highs seen over interior places like Karur or Madurai. Interior areas of North Tamil Nadu like Vellore get heated up as we get into April becoming Veyyilur as locally it is called many a times until the Southwest Monsoon checks into Peninsular India.
West Coast of India, particularly coastal Karnataka & Kerala has completed its course of summer for this year and are now seeing their summer thunderstorms regularly with many places along the Western Ghats seeing thunderstorms develop regularly during the late afternoon / evening hours. Today once again places along the Ghats in Kerala & South Karnataka will see moderate thunderstorm activity with isolated places seeing heavy spell at times.
While most of Tamil Nadu will remain dry places in the Ghats will continue to have almost daily chance of thunderstorms though the rains may happen on days when localized conditions turn out favorable. Today parts of Nilgiris district may see moderate thunderstorm activity.