The City of Bengaluru sits on a plateau and enjoys an elevation of about 3000 feet. This altitude keeps the city pleasant for fairly long. Extreme heat comes up in April and lasts till the first week of May. Thereafter, frequent thunderstorms as a part of pre-monsoon activity lead to comfortable breezy evenings and nights. Yes, days continue to remain hot, till short of monsoon arrival, in the first week of June. April, in general, is hotter than May, albeit with small margins.
March 2024 has remained completely dry for Silicon City. Parched conditions led to soaring temperatures on most days of the month. Temperature exceeded the 35°C mark for nine days, so far. During this, it touched 36°C on two occasions, including yesterday. The mean monthly normal for March so far works out to 34.5°C, about 1.5°C above the average, which is significantly high. Even, the minimum temperature persistently remained in the low 20’s for the entire duration. Bengaluru has an average of about 15mm rainfall in March and no rainfall has been recorded this season. Nothing is likely for the next about 10 days.
In the last two years, the city witnessed stray showers on a few occasions in March. But, there are earlier occasions as well, when March remained completely dry. Zero rainfall was recorded in March 2019 and 2021. Average rainfall increases substantially during the upcoming months of April and May. Moderate normal rainfall of 62mm in April, shoots to three digits of 129mm in May.
The capital city is unlikely to have any respite for the next one week or ten days. The north-south Peninsular India trough has mostly remained inactive, so far. Strong easterly winds are penetrating deep, pushing this trough far to the west of the city. As such, the trough has remained dry, without any trigger of moisture from either side of the coastline. Day temperature may rise further by a notch or two, to climb in the high 30’s. There are early signs of some weather activity, likely in the second week of April.
