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Chennai: One of the coolest June in decades

If you enjoyed the weather more this June, you had good reason to feel as if spring was in the air. It was the third coolest June in 42 years with the mercury dipping below the average for 14 days in the month, said Met officials. “This June, the average fell from 37 to 35.2 degrees Celsius. In 1991, it was 34.3 degrees and 34.9 degrees in 1996,” said YEA Raj, deputy director general, regional meteorological centre. Since 2005, the monthly average has been higher.

“For the first time in recent memory, I decided to make my family spend May and June in the city, and it is a decision I do not regret,” said Priya Anandan, who usually spends the holidays in Ooty. Although children said they felt cheated because they couldn’t play outdoor cricket due to rains, most others were thankful. “Normally, there is self-rationing of water in our apartment complex but due to the rains there was no disruption in supply,” said N Mohan of RA Puram.

With the onset of the southwest monsoon, local thunder storm activity brought in a good amount of rainfall to the city. Met officials said the arrival of cyclone Laila and the rainfall in the wake of its withdrawal was the beginning of a good run on the weather front. The city enjoyed nine days of rainfall of varying degrees this June. Although nowhere near the record 698 mm seen in 1996, Nungambakkam registered 137 mm and Meenambakkam 130. The city’s normal is around 40 mm for June, added Raj. In 1991, the city received 264 mm in June.

The thunderstorm activity was not restricted to the city alone, with all but three districts receiving excess rainfall. Against the normal of 42.1 mm, the state received 78.5 mm, an 87% excess. “The last month has been exceedingly good for the state. The trend is likely to continue in July as well, and we can expect more rains and cooler days,” added Raj.

courtesy - TOI (corrections done in Image)

Sudden downpour throws Chennai traffic out of gear

CHENNAI: The city experienced a sudden downpour on Saturday afternoon leaving hundreds , including office-goers, stranded at bus stops and railway platforms. Several roads and subways were inundated and traffic was thrown out of gear. Meteorology Department officials said the observatory in Nungambakkam recorded 30 mm of rain during the 12 hours ending 8.30 p.m. on Saturday. The Meenambakkam observatory registered 38.7 mm during the same period. Weather officials said the heat during the daytime helped the development of thunder cloud activity.

According to S.R. Ramanan, Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai has been experiencing unstable weather due to a combination of factors. The development of convective clouds generated in the evening, after intense heat in the day, causes rain, he said. The city has also been experiencing rain due to local thunderstorm activity. This weather is expected to be like this till the end of this month.

Deputy Director-General of Meteorology Department Y.E.A. Raj said it was not unusual to have thundershowers in the evenings during southwest monsoon. “This year, we have had more rain compared to previous years. The rainfall occurs two to three hours after sea breeze sets in as it brings more moisture to the coast,” he said. The sun has been playing hide and seek with the clouds for the past few weeks. This month, so far, the City and Airport has received 84 mm and 117 mm of rainfall respectively, which is much more than the average in June

Courtesy : The Hindu

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On 1-May, Rainfall over Kerala and North Interior Karnataka

Rainfall occurred at a few places over Kerala and North Interior Karnataka. Isolated rainfall occurred over Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Coastal and South interior Karnataka. Dry weather prevailed over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Lakshadweep.
The chief amounts of rainfall recorded in Centimetres are:
Parkal (Warangal dt) 4, Kanyakumari, Pattambi (Palakkad dt), Konni (Pathanamthitta dt) and Sakleshpura (Hassan dt) 3 each, Periyar Dam (Theni dt), Thrithala (Palakkad dt), Kanjirapally (Kottayam dt), Alamatti (Bijapur dt) and Jeerwadi (Gulburga dt) 2 each and Kuzhithurai and Pechiparai (both Kanyakumari dt), Yercaud, Kodaikanal, Vythiri (Wynad dt), Munnar (Idukki dt), Subramanya (Dakshina Kannada dt), Shirali, Gadag, B. Bagewadi (Bijapur dt), Afzalpur (Gulburga dt), Madikeri and Bandipura (Chamrajnagara dt) 1 each.
On Saturday, the maximum temperature fell markedly at a few places over North Interior Tamil Nadu, fell appreciably at a few places over rest Tamil Nadu, fell at one or two places over rest Tamil Nadu, South Interior Karnataka, Telangana, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, rose appreciably at one or two places over North Interior Karnataka, rose at one or two places over rest North Interior Karnataka and changed little elsewhere over the region.
They were appreciably below normal at a few places over North Tamil Nadu, at one or two places over South Interior Karnataka, South coastal Andhra Pradesh, below normal at a few places over Telangana, rest Tamil Nadu, at one or two places over North Interior Karnataka, North coastal Andhra Pradesh, above normal at a few places over Kerala and were generally normal over the rest of the region.
Rentachintala recorded the highest maximum temperature of 42 degree Celsius in the region.

From imdchennai.gov.in

Sahara Dust Storm

Dust blew through western Africa in late April 2010, creating a plume spanning hundreds of kilometers. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite observed the dust storm on April 22, 2010. These natural-color images provide a wide-area (top) and close-up (bottom) view of the dust storm. The area outlined in white in the top image is the area shown in the bottom image.
The region affected by this dust storm includes not just the Sahara Desert but also the Sahel, a semi-arid grassland region bordering the massive desert on the south. The dust plume hovers primarily over Burkina Faso and Mali. Straddling the border between Burkina Faso and Niger, an especially thick layer of dust appears to push southeastward. The billowy appearance of the dust and the relatively clear skies to the southeast suggest that this is an advancing wall of dust.

What happened to "Emirates" flight over Goa ??

Emirate Flight encountered CAT at FLIGHT LEVEL 200.i.e at 20000 ft. near Goa to day 25.04.2010/0745 HRS IST.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Goa Observations at 00Z 25 Apr 2010
sn Pre (hPa) Ht(m) Dir spd[kt]
-- --------- ----- --- -------
1 548 5129 315 01
2 523 5497 307 10
3 494 5945 298 20
4 368 8192 292 31
5 343 8712 285 45
[Courtesy : Wyoming weather web]
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

This is a Clear Air Turbulence [CAT]. Further it indicates clear wind shear also. CAT can not be easily identifiable with RADARS. This leads to sudden altitude loss.
From FLT level 200 to level 050.

posted by Mr. Anonymous

13-Apr, Earthquake on Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai, China

Earthquakes in the Tibet region result from the collision between the India Plate (to the south) and the Eurasia Plate (to the north). The convergence is responsible for raising the Himalaya and uplifting the entire Tibetan Plateau. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Tibetan Plateau in southern Qinghai Province, China, on April 13, 2010, killing hundreds of people and injuring as many as 10,000.
Based on data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 2002, this map shows the location of the quake and several aftershocks (black circles) as well as significant tectonic faults (red lines). A northwest-southeast valley provides evidence of the underlying geologic fault. The dotted line to the southwest traces the approximate location of a suture zone, which, as its name suggests, is an area where two continental plates have joined together.
As the India Plate pushes north, the eastern side of the Tibetan Plateau is getting bent and stretched toward the south-southeast. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake occurred along a strike-slip fault, and it was one of the largest known earthquakes to have occurred within several hundred kilometers of the location.

Ash Plume across the North Atlantic

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull Volcano sent a plume of ash and steam across the North Atlantic in mid-April 2010, prompting authorities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Scandinavia to close airspace over their countries. The airspace closure had a ripple effect, disrupting flights to and from other countries as well. Authorities could not say how long the airspace closure would last, and the ash’s spread threatened to force closures of additional airspace over the coming days.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on April 15, 2010. A volcanic plume blows from Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in southern Iceland toward the east-southeast. The plume blows past the Faroe Islands and arcs slightly toward the north near the Shetland Islands. The plume’s tan hue indicates a fairly high ash content.
Unlike the soft, fluffy material that results from burned vegetation, volcanic ash consists of tiny jagged particles of rock. Once sucked into an airplane’s turbines, the abrasive material can easily cause engine failure, but an aircraft’s weather radar can’t spot the ash.
Eyjafjallajökull (or Eyjafjöll) is a stratovolcano composed of alternating layers of ash, lava, and rocks ejected by earlier eruptions. This volcano rises to a height of 1,666 meters (5,466 feet) above sea level. It began erupting for the first time in 190 years on March 20, 2010. The eruption opened a 500-meter (2,000-foot) fissure, and also produced lava fountains that built several hills of bubble-filled lava rocks (scoria) along the vent.

Blast from west behind heat

Hope of cooler weather lies in Mediterranean storm
Weather records over the past decades suggest that summers in India have become hotter, but scientists today linked the extreme heat in eastern India to the flow of hot and dry winds from India’s northwest.

In Calcutta today, the maximum temperature climbed down to normal at 35.9 degrees Celsius, though the higher humidity range and power cuts denied people comfort. The high humidity has triggered hopes of a Nor’wester in the next three-four days. (See Metro)

Meteorologists said respite from the heat may be expected if a type of extra-tropical storm they called a “western disturbance” originating over the Mediterranean region moved eastward over India and then southeast along the Gangetic plains.

“A western disturbance has a cooling effect, but we haven’t felt the effects of a western disturbance in northern India for a few weeks now — hot, dry air from the northwest is moving towards the east,” said B. Bandopadhyay, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi.

Gaya was among the hottest places in eastern India today with a temperature of 44.8 degrees Celsius — about 6 degrees Celsius above normal.

A western disturbance currently observed over Jammu and Kashmir is moving eastward over the mountains but is unlikely to cool the plains, scientists said.

The IMD said today heat wave conditions were likely to continue over the plains of northwest India over the next 24 hours, but another western disturbance was likely to move into western Himalayas around April 15. “But the effects of this one also appear set to bypass the plains,” an IMD official said.

Across wide swathes of northern and eastern India, weather instruments recorded temperatures several degrees above the long-term normal readings. Delhi’s Palam weather office recorded a maximum temperature of 42.7 degrees Celsius, about 7 degrees Celsius higher than normal, while Lucknow and Patna both recorded maximum temperatures about 4 degrees Celsius above normal.

The heat wave, meteorologists said, appears in line with research that suggests average temperatures over India have increased over the past several decades. A study by scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, has indicated that the maximum as well as minimum temperatures have increased significantly, by 0.2 degree Celsius per decade, over the past three decades.

“When the mean (average temperature) shifts to a higher level, the chances of heat waves occurring also rise,” said K. Krishna Kumar, a senior scientist at the IITM. “The number of hot days also appears to be increasing,” Kumar told The Telegraph.

A recent analysis of India’s temperature trends during the pre-monsoon months of March, April and May from 1970 to 2005 shows that the frequency of hot days and nights has increased for India as a whole — although there are regional variations.

The new IITM study, published in the Journal of Earth Sciences, shows that frequency of hot days has significantly increased over the southern parts of India, but there has been no significant change over the northern parts of India.

The Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, today cited a three-year-old research paper by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, showing regional variations in trends in maximum and minimum temperatures.

The study by S.K. Dash, an atmospheric scientist at the IIT, analysing temperatures between 1901 and 2003 suggests that in the eastern coastal region, the maximum temperature has gone up by 0.6 degree Celsius and the minimum by 0.2 degree Celsius. In northwest India, according to the study, while the maximum temperature has increased by 0.6 degree Celsius, the minimum temperature has dropped by 0.2 degree Celsius. The IMD has said March 2010 was the second warmest March since 1901.

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On Jan 15, watch the ring of fire

In a week, a rare celestial event will mesmerise skygazers in southern Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala. A ring of fire will adorn the afternoon sky

over Dhanushkodi near Rameswaram, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam for 10 minutes on January 15, making it the first annular solar eclipse to be seen from India in 45 years. The rest of India will have a partial sighting.

An annular solar eclipse happens when the disc of the moon covers the central part of the sun, leaving only a ring-like peripheral region visible from some parts of the earth. This happens when the earth comes closest to the sun while the moon is at its farthest position in orbit. In such a situation, the disc of the moon cannot completely cover the sun's surface and a fiery ring is visible beyond the moon's edge. The last time an annular eclipse was viewed from India was on November 23, 1965. The next one will be on December 26, 2019.

The track of annularity, or the patch of land from where this celestial event can be viewed, will start from Africa and cross the Indian Ocean to end at Shandong Peninsula in China. "The temple town of Rameswaram will lie very close to the central line and the annularity there can be seen for a duration of 10 minutes and 7 seconds starting at 1.17 pm and ending at 1.25 pm. This is a very long period given the average durations of annular eclipses," said M P Birla Planetarium director (research & academic) Debi Prosad Duari.

Severe cold wave spreads to central, eastern parts

India Meteorological Department (IMD) sees no significant change in minimum and maximum temperatures over north-west and central India over the next two to three days.

During the 24 hours ending Friday morning, severe cold wave conditions entrenched themselves over central and east India.

Severe cold wave conditions prevailed in some parts of Vidarbha while cold wave conditions prevailed in parts of Jharkhand and at isolated places in Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh and north Punjab.

COLD DAY
Cold day conditions were reported from Haryana and in remaining parts of Punjab as fog prevented the sun's heating to filter to ground.

Minimum temperatures were below normal by 2 to 5 deg Celsius over parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and interior Maharashtra.

The lowest minimum temperature of -0.2 deg Celsius was recorded at Amritsar during the last 24 hours. Dense fog conditions have been prevailing over most parts of Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Light northwesterly light winds were prevailing over Indo-Gangetic plains of north-west India in lower levels.

Forecast up to Monday warned of fog to dense fog in the morning over many parts of Indo-Gangetic plains. Cold wave conditions over parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, interior Orissa and Vidarbha are seen sustaining during this period.

Cold day conditions would continue over parts of Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan, before abating.

RAINS FORECAST

Meanwhile, isolated to scattered rainfall activity is being forecast over parts of northwest and adjoining central India from Tuesday onwards in association with the arrival of a western disturbance featuring the deepest of the troughs seen so far during this season.

The steaming head of the system is characterised by lower pressure and ascending motion of air that in turn leads to precipitation. This would be the first time that a westerly system crossing in from the north-west is able to bring rains over the plains and adjoining central India.

According to the US National Centre for Environmental Prediction), the week ending January 15 would see the cold wave and occasional fog make their alternating appearance.

But the week that follows (January 16 to 24) would see the chill make a further dip into east India and adjoining east-central India. Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal are shown to come under the grip of bitter cold during this period.


Meanwhile in the south, the outlook for impact from an easterly wave and associated precipitation over the peninsula has been retained.

According to the Chennai Met Centre, isolated light rain has occurred over Tamil Nadu during the 24 hours ending Friday morning.

Forecast until Sunday spoke about the possibility of rain or thundershowers at many places over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. A cyclonic circulation lay over coastal Tamil Nadu and adjoining south-west Bay of Bengal.

Isolated rain or thundershowers are also likely to occur over interior Tamil Nadu and south coastal Andhra Pradesh. An NCEP forecast said that the whole of the peninsula, north-northeastward from the west coast may get scattered rains over the next week.

The IMD forecast spoke about the possibility of scattered rainfall over south peninsular India until Wednesday, up to which forecasts were available.

Another "weather man" from Chennai

The MET office is usually way off the mark predicting rain and sunshine, but a techie-turned weatherman has devised an ingenious way to foretell what the heavens have in store for us. His forecast comes as colourful maps on e-mail and updates on SMS. K. Rajesh, a computer techie active in Ham radio, came back to Chennai from the US and turned his weather-watching hobby into dishing out predictions for his extended circle of family and friends.

Rajesh loves working with satellites through assembled radios and other equipment.

If he is to be believed, anyone can be a weatherman with just Rs 4,000 and a computer. The cost includes a weather station, an antenna (Rs 150) and a receiver (Rs 1,500), which can be designed by anyone who knows computers. This set-up helps pull in signals from weather satellites in orbit. The five-watt radio signals received are then decoded, he explains.

Rajesh's 'station' uses the three operational polarorbiting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) weather satellites, equipped with visual and infrared equipment. About 300 km high in the sky, they orbit approximately once every one-and-a-half hour. By decoding and analysing the voluminous data gathered from signals, an accurate weather map can be produced, explains the techie, an alumnus of the Thiagarajar Engineering College in Madurai.

Though India currently has the INSAT and Kalpana Metsat weather satellites in geo-stationary orbit, the signals from them are in the gigahertz range, which require expensive equipment to catch. Further, unlike NOOA, their technical information is not in the public domain. While the MET office's cliched predictions are mostly wrong, Rajesh takes prides in his accuracy.

He says, "While I take a minimum four tests for a day, the MET office remains content with one." Rajesh's next step is to build a NOOA high-resolution (HRPT) station at home to improve the resolution's images from 4 kilometres to a pixel to 1 kilometre to a pixel. This man's not going to be caught in the rain without an umbrella.

Taken from:: http://in.news.yahoo.com