The Hindu : Mercury levels show rising trend in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Mercury levels show rising trend in State

By M. Harish Govind

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 13. Even as the mercury levels have remained high in the State since January, the Met authorities here have pointed to an increasing trend ranging between two to three degrees Celsius in the mean maximum temperature this year.

The Met Director, M. D. Ramachandran, told The Hindu that while the usual deviation from the normal temperature ranges between plus or minus four degrees Celsius, this year the deviation had been always on the plus side, though within limits. The normal is taken as the average of the mercury levels recorded during the 20 years between 1961 and 1980 for this period.

Day temperatures had been appreciably above normal in almost all the districts since January, Mr. Ramachandran said. Kottayam had recorded a temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius on March 10, which was an all-time record for that district.

Punalur had recorded 38.8 degrees on March 11, which was again high by normal standards, he said.

The rising trend could be due to the fact that rainfall has been deficient during the last two years, the Met director said. Summer showers were expected around the middle of March in the normal case and a spell of rain could reverse the rising trend. There was, however, no appreciable variation in the humidity levels in the State, he added.

The former Met Director (Weather), R. Lakshminarayan, said that the State received a normal precipitation of four cm by way of summer showers in March, 11.3 cm in April and 26.3 cm in May, together making up a total of 41.6 cm for the three summer months.

Summer showers are characterised by thundershowers that occur during the afternoon and evening, which bring down the mercury levels.

If the period from 1976 to 2000 was taken into consideration, summer rain had been excess in five years, deficient in 17 years and normal in three years.

The best summer rainfall received was in 1999 (plus 48 per cent) when a precipitation of 61.7 cm was recorded. The lowest summer rainfall was recorded in 1983, when 9.78 cm was recorded.

The following is the year-wise break up of the summer precipitation: 1976: minus 41 per cent, 1977: plus 25, 1978 plus 27, 1979 minus 53, 1980 minus 47, 1981 minus 33; 1982 minus 45, 1983 minus 76; 1984 minus 12, 1985 minus seven, 1986 minus 51, 1987 minus 55, 1988 minus 15, 1989 minus 30, 1990 plus 28, 1991 minus 38, 1992 minus 34, 1993 minus 36, 1994 minus 20, 1995 plus 30, 1996 minus 47, 1997 minus 44, 1998 minus 41, 1999 plus 48 and 2000 minus 40.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala