CHENNAI: The rise in night time temperature is because of clouding, said D S Pai, head, climate prediction, Climate Research Division of Indian Meteorological Department “Daytime temperature is caused by solar radiation. The clouds suck the solar input and reduce the temperature. But, the same clouds do not allow the heat to escape post late evenings resulting in warmer nights. Once the skies are clear, normalcy will be restored. Our satellite imagery clearly shows there is lot of clouding in the southern region,” said Pai, adding the there is an easterly system which is bringing isolated rainfall in Kerala, TN and Karnataka.
Meanwhile, scientists at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology said this time IMD was giving Extended Range Forecast Services for hot days and heat waves, which is a first. This will be based on the Dynamical Extended Range Forecasting System developed under Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) monsoon mission project. The forecasts updated after every five days will be made available through the IMD website.
Ramesh Kumar Yadav, climatologist, said this is neither an El Nino nor a La Nina year. The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) has gone down. Weak La Nina conditions were prevailing over the Pacific Ocean since July, 2016. However, K Palanivelu, director, Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research (CC&AR) of Anna University, said global warming and climate change are the villains. “Reoccurrence of freak events like extreme rainfall and hottest summers will intensify. We have collated the historical data using UK climate model PRECIS and found that warmer summers and maximum temperature would soar by about 3.5 degree Celsius.”