It was a warmer March for Chennai this year. The actual temperature was 1°C above normal and the Met office said westerly winds that blew for about 15 days in March deferred the onset of the cooling sea breeze during most days.
“Normally, the city gets continuous sea breeze in March except for a few days. But this time, due to westerly winds in the morning, the see breeze came late and so we felt that the weather was slightly hotter than normal,” said Dr Y.E.A. Raj, deputy director general of Meteorology, Regional Meteorological Centre.
The observatory at Nungambakkam registered an average of 33.6°C this March, 0.9°C higher than normal. At Meenambakkam, the difference was slightly more at 35.2°C, 1.6°C higher.
The city registered its hottest day for the month on March 21, with Meenambakkam recording 37.4°C and Nungambakkam 36.3°C. The lowest maximum temperature recorded at Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam were 32°C and 33.1°C respectively.
“Meenambakkam was relatively hotter than Nungambakkam this month, as it took more than an hour and a half for the sea breeze to set over the peripheral areas,” said Dr Raj, adding that the airport town experienced temperatures beyond 37°C on three days, March 21, 23 and 31.
He also noted that interestingly, the two weather stations recorded lower temperatures for about four days from March 24 which could be termed as a cold wave in March.
“Due to northerly winds, the nights were cooler and Nungambakkam registered 22.4°C while Meenambakkam recorded 20.8°C, which were about 3°C less than the normal minimum temperature,” he added.