Chennai has been sizzling since the turn of August, in particular the second fortnight of the month has been abnormally hot by a few degrees with temperatures regularly exceeding 37 degrees in many areas around the city. A few days back we had posted about how 2016 has been the second hottest August in Chennai Meenambakkam in the last decade. The subsequent 5 days have managed to push 2016 to become the hottest August month with the average maximum temperatures pushing closer to 100ºF degrees.
But fortunately relief is on the cards in the form of things becoming better both on the temperature & rain front. The last couple of days have seen the onset of Sea Breeze move some time earlier compared to the previous day in Chennai. This trend is likely to continue today as well with sea breeze probably expected to hit around Chennai by noon keeping the temperatures under check and possibly a couple of degrees lower than the last few days. Models are also indicating the sea breeze to be fairly strong as well bringing in the possibility of thunderstorms triggered by the sea breeze front. Like yesterday the available moisture though is far less than ideal conditions so the thunderstorms could not be very intense and could provide rains to a smaller canvas of area.
Parts of South Tamil Nadu though will continue to see high day time temperatures with the stretch between Madurai & Tirunelveli seeing possible day time max temp of around 38 / 39 degrees. Rest of the state could see marginal reduction in temperatures. The interior places are likely to see day time max temp of around 37 degrees while North Coastal areas could see temperatures stay around 35 degrees thanks to the early onset of sea breeze.
Day time maximum temperature in Chennai could be around 35 / 36 degrees with isolated thunderstorms developing in the areas to the West of the City. Southwest & Southern suburbs of Chennai could possibly benefit from evening thunderstorms.