TIRUCHY: With mercury touching 40.1°C on Tuesday, Tiruchy witnessed one of its hottest Julys in recent years. Daytime temperature hovers above 38°C for the past one week, intensifying discomfort for residents and pushing electricity demand across the district to around 550 MW.
According to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the temperature remains below the all-time July record of 41.1°C, registered on July 2, 1921. The previous highest July temperature in recent years was 40.4°C, recorded in 2019.
Explaining the prevailing weather conditions, V R Durai, Head of the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, Chennai, said the current heat is the result of a combination of large-scale atmospheric factors.
“Normally during July, intense heating over northern India creates a low-pressure region that draws moisture-laden southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea towards the subcontinent. However, this year, the Mascarene High-a high-pressure system over the southern Indian Ocean that drives the southwest monsoon-has weakened due to the influence of El Niño.
Consequently, the southwest monsoon has weakened over Kerala and the winds crossing the Western Ghats lose much of their moisture before reaching interior districts. Reduced cloud cover also allows more direct solar radiation to reach the surface, resulting in higher daytime temperatures,” he said.
He added that interior, landlocked cities such as Tiruchy and Madurai are more vulnerable to such conditions than coastal regions. “The present weather pattern is expected to persist until around July 18, after which convectional rainfall is likely to bring some relief,” he said.
N Prasanna, a weather blogger from Tiruchy said that the current atmospheric pattern is unfavourable for widespread rainfall. “A ridge extending from the Arabian Sea, along with dry air intrusion at the mid-levels of the atmosphere, is suppressing deep convection over both the west coast-Western Ghats and the thunderstorm-prone leeward regions of Tamil Nadu. Consequently, ‘mini summer’ conditions are expected to persist for a few more days,” he added.
Residents say the weather has become increasingly exhausting despite occasional gusts of wind. “The afternoons are extremely hot and stepping outside is difficult. The only relief is that there is at least some breeze in the evenings, which makes the weather slightly more bearable. But without fans or air-conditioners, it is still very uncomfortable,” said B Senthil Kumar, a resident of Thillai Nagar.