Coimbatore : Temperature stood at a maximum of 33.5 degree Celsius on Monday with summer setting in early this year. While the nights in Coimbatore will record anywhere around 20-21 degrees with mostly clear skies, the overall temperature as compared to last year will be 0.5 to 1 percent less, according to Dr S. Panneerselvam, Head of the Department of Meteorology, TNAU.

Predicting a decline of 34 per cent in the north-east monsoon, Dr Panneerselvam said as compared to 2015 where there was no summer as the year witnessed cloudy weather most times with shower ranging to 148 mm that year, 2016 and 2017 recorded high temperature during summer.

” However, 130mm rain is expected in the next three months. Though there is an increasing trend, after the second week of May temperature is expected to decline. The velocity of the wind is expected to go up to 5-8 kmph depending on the place,” he said and added that rainfall this year would be less as compared to the previous year.