Back
Front Page
Chill factor sets city shivering
| Gusty winds at nearly 50 kmph make Bangalore feel colder than it is |
Caught unawares: The sudden change in weather in Bangalore has left people struggling to keep themselves warm, like these visitors to the garden city.
Bangalore: Even as Bangaloreans struggle to keep warm, wrap themselves up in extra layers of woollens or just curl up under quilts, the city’s meteorological centre springs a surprise: the minimum was as high as 18 degrees Celsius on Tuesday morning. Surely, the thermometer was lying, one may think, for it certainly feels a lot colder than that. The truth lies in the “wind chill factor.” With wind speeds up to 46 kmph, no wonder the city felt much colder than it was.
Our warm blooded bodies, it turns out, gauge our environment far more keenly than the technologies we so depend on. “Our skin interprets weather differently. Minimum temperatures are not the only indicators of cold weather for us. We experience the combined effects of temperature, humidity and the wind-chill factor,” says G.S Bhat, professor at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies in the Indian Institute of Science. “These factors can make us feel several degrees colder than what the thermometer tells us.”
These strong winds blowing over Bangalore since Sunday have been unmistakably picking up speed, with window panes rattling louder and trees teetering at a greater incline every day. From a fairly reasonable 28 kmph on Saturday, it became a gusty 40 kmph on Sunday, 44 kmph on Monday and rose to strong 46 kmph on Tuesday. The winds are stronger still at the airport, going up to 48 kmph on Monday.
Although the temperatures over these four days have hovered between 16 and 18 degrees Celsius, the winds, which have been bringing in copious moisture, have added to the chill factor, according to G. Vijayaraghavan, director of the meteorological centre.
“These strong winds, accompanied by light rain, in the city have their origins in the Bay of Bengal, where a trough of low pressure is forming,” he adds.
“If the trough turns into a depression, we can expect more rain in Bangalore in the next two days,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan says. “There is an upper air cyclonic circulation that has developed over the Bay of Bengal, and it has a likelihood of developing into a low pressure,” he adds.
As for the winds, he says there is no cause for concern. “Only if the wind-speed remains at a sustained and constant high is there any potential of destruction or uprooting trees,” he says.
“The months of November and December see weather fluctuations almost every day with bright sunshine one day and thick clouds the next,” says Mr. Vijayaraghavan. This is because the easterly current that determines the northeast monsoon at this time moves in “waves of troughs and ridges,” and not in a predictable fashion, he explains.
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu