Temperature may cross 37 degrees Celsius

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, MARCH 25. Bangaloreans better be prepared for sweating it out this summer. Temperatures in the City are set to cross the 37 degrees Celsius mark by the first week of April.

The City though, is not as bad as the Northern districts in the State. Gulbarga and Raichur have for the past three days, been experiencing heat waves of nearly 40 degrees Celsius.

The Director of Meteorological Centre in the City, Dr Anand L.Koppar, is, however, not unduly alarmed by the current trends. He told The Hindu on Sunday (when the mercury touched the 36 degrees Celsius mark), that such temperatures ``occur once in a while.''

According to Dr Koppar, the City had experienced temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius during March in both 1996 and 1998. Last year, however, things were much cooler. ``Temperatures remained between 35 degrees Celsius and 35.4 degrees Celsius," he said.

At the same time, he admitted that the situation warranted some concern. ``For the past three days, night and day-time temperatures throughout the State have been three degrees above the normal. For instance, in Bangalore days now record 36 degrees Celsius, while normally it would be 33 degrees Celsius. During nights the temperature is 23 degrees Celsius instead of the normal 20 degrees Celsius.''

Dr Koppar attributed the prevailing weather to ``hot, dry winds, from the North-West'' and explained that ``this is the flow pattern throughout the country. These winds bring dry heat.''

A factor which compounded the situation was that the City has had cloudless skies for some time. ``There is no moisture build-up at all. Which is why we are experiencing the Delhi type of summer. This is not the typical South Indian summer,'' he pointed out.

While cloudless skies meant rain-less days and therefore, spelled more misery for human beings, the weather was in fact, a boon for the ``rabi'' crops, Dr Koppar said. ``Crops such as jowar, pulses, (Bengal gram etc.,) flourish in dry heat. By March-end they are generally harvested. But if there are thunderstorms and if it rains now, these crops will be damaged,'' he added.

According to the Dr Koppar, normally the period between mid-March to mid-April sees some light cloud development which result in summer showers. ``In the past two weeks, we have had two spells of rain which were not effective. On March 12 and 13, the City experienced 1 mm of rain. Again, on March 21, we got another 1 mm of rain,'' he said.

But such light rains were not sufficient to bring down temperatures, Dr Koppar warned. `This hot spell has to be broken soon. Or the weather will get hotter,'' he added.

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