Kerala to get wet spell till May 20th
70°C
After an extremely oppressive heatwave with heat index of above 70% affecting daily lives, widespread thundershowers have been reported from. many stations in the last 2-4 days. The thunder showers are a pre- cursor to the moisture incursion from lower level westerlies. This is directly linked to the steady hotting up of the north western plains of India. Already the thermal equatorial lows have started migrating northwards in response to apparent northward movement of the Sun. The unusually long anti- cyclonic cell over the central Arabian sea acted as an upper level thermal inversion cap preventing the vertical expansion of expanded air thereby preventing convective activity. This has also made it suffocating for peninsular India as it felt like being put in a hot chamber with the lid on.
Upper air circulation over interior south Tamil Nadu bring widespread rains
An upper air circulation over south interior Tamil Nadu along with an induced trough in the westerlies have brought thundershowers back in action. In the last 24 hrs, pockets in south Tamil Nadu districts received heavy showers. Sothuparai, in Theni district received 10 cms. Certain pvt rain statisticians maintaining their own rain gauges in Kerala informed me that Vaikom AWS, and Brahmamangalam near Piravom recorded 10 cms and 12.5 cms rain respectively, on 9th May .
Extreme rain event likely
As the upper air cyclonic circulation is likely to remain longer due to upper level divergence combined with moisture transport from the AS, certain eastern pockets like Ponmudi hills in Thiruvananthapuram, Athikkayam – Thulappally in Sabari hills in eastern region of Pathanamthitta could get extreme rainfall between 13th and 15th May.
