The Hindu : Front Page : City sweats as mercury shoots up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 19, 2006

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City sweats as mercury shoots up

Staff Reporter

Weatherman plays it cool, saying it's a temporary phenomenon

HYDERABAD: Even though it's just the third week of January, Wednesday for Hyderabadis was as torrid as any peak summer day. While morning walkers felt no need to take a pullover along, geysers went out of action and air conditioners could be heard humming in homes.

The temperature stood at 33 degree Celsius, five degrees above average normal temperature.

D. V. Rao of the Hyderabad Metrological Department attributes this spell of hot weather to anti-cyclonic conditions over Telangana region, sending warm winds from the ocean to the region, heating up both Hyderabad and Nizamabad.

Cool drink sales up

For J. Venkatesham, who runs a canteen in Begumpet, this has meant an increase in sales of cool drinks. "I have sold 24 bottles of cool drinks and ten bottles of packaged drinking water while on Tuesday, it was just two bottles of water."

But for Azhar Mir Kamal Ali of Kangan Jewellery, the rise in mercury has led to a fall in sales due to poor footfalls. "We usually keep the door of the shop closed, but today due to the humidity, we kept it open.

We have a clock that measures the temperature which reads 32 degree Celsius, and this is how it has been since morning," he says, while it was 28 degrees on Tuesday.

The mood is no different in a public phone booth. "Grahak kam hai aaj, garmi bahut jyada hai," says the shop owner.

However, Mr. Rao says this is a temporary condition, which will last just two or three days. So it's not the time to pack up the woollens as yet.

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