Cyclone Mahasen may prove damp squib
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Chennai: Chennaiites might experience warm weather for a few days more. Relief is not in sight yet as the movement of the year’s first cyclone Mahasen is still unclear.
While Mahasen has followed the pattern of the track taken by cyclone Laila that made landfall north of Chennai and brought copious rain to Tamil Nadu in 2010, it is now expected to recurve and move northwards and go beyond Bangladesh.
However, the chances of Mahasen weakening to dissipate over the sea itself and not reach its predicted destination in the northeast cannot be ruled out either. Come what may, the people of Chennai would have to bear with the ‘Kathiri’ season. While Nungambakkam registered 39.5 degree Celsius on Saturday, it went up by 0.1 degree to 39.6 degree Celsius on Sunday. “So long as the system remains near Bay of Bengal, there will be warm weather,” said Dr Y.E.A. Raj, deputy director general of meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai.
“Due to the cyclone, there was some clouding in Chennai. But still temperature went up because of the westerly winds. If we get a band of clouds on Monday the radiation could then be cut off,” he added. However, Met office has issued a heat wave warning across Tamil Nadu, noting that the temperature might stay four to five degrees above the average May month temperature of 36 degree Celsius.
On the other hand, it has also instructed ports to hoist Distant Cautionary Signal (DC No.2) warning at Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Pamban, Ennore, Puducherry, Kattupalli and Thoothukudi.
“We will sweat a lot on Monday as the humidity will be very high. The heat will be trapped within the earth and so we will feel uncomfortable. In the evening, there are chances of a little rain and hailstorm,” said K. Rajesh, an amateur weatherman who tracks cyclone with his inexpensive HAM radio set.
While noting that nature is very unpredictable and we cannot compare one cyclone with another, Rajesh said that size wise the current cyclone can be compared to Laila. “Both the cyclones were huge, spanning 800 kms,” he added.
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