Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

People in Mysore went to bed wrapped up in more blankets than usual on Wednesday night with the city experiencing its coldest December night in 117 years at 9.8 degrees Celsius.

The Met department has also forecast that several places in north-interior Karnataka will be under the grip of severe cold wave conditions, while moderate cold wave conditions will prevail over south-interior Karnataka in the next 24 hours. The weather forecast for Bangalore city and neighbouring areas is 11 degree Celsius around Christmas.

Mysore has never had nights this cold, except on February 14, 2006, when mercury dipped to an all-time low of 8.6 degrees Celsius. The average minimum temperature stays at a comfortable 17 degree Celsius, with the departure from average normal in the last 30 years being a good 7 degrees Celsius.

But on Wednesday night, the city literally froze. The maximum temperature in the city during the day stood at 29.9 degree Celsius, which is not too unusual. But due to the severe cold spell, people shivered even after wrapping themselves with layers of woollens and sheets.

The winter has also stretched nights by 36 minutes. "While the usual time for sunrise during December hovers around 5:45 am to 6 am during this month, the cold wave has pushed that time to 6:36 am," said an official at the Met department. Yet another region that is feeling the freeze is Bijapur, which recorded 6.8 degrees Celsius.

According to H Venkatesh of the Agro Meteorological Observatory (AMO), the cold wave in the district for the last 10 days is because of extreme conditions along the west coast from Rajasthan and Gujarat down towards the southern region.

The minimum temperature recorded in the AMO showed interesting fluctuations. It was 6 degrees Celsius on Sunday, 8 degrees Celsius on Monday, 8.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, 7.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and 6.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

According to weather experts, the fall in the temperature was a unique feature, the likes of which has not been witnessed since decades. Though it was expected that there might be an increase of at least 2 degrees Celsius on Friday, the prediction was not backed by any data.

Shankar Kulkarni, agronomist at the Regional Agriculture Research Station said the climate had no impact on the crops. In fact it was good for wheat, horse gram and Karadi (Kusibe).

The fall in temperature, however, might result in "sugary disease" in jowar, a major crop in the region. "The disease might end up in secondary infections and might spoil the quality of the grain," he said. The very cold climate, which would result in high humidity, might also result in some fungal diseases in the horticulture crops.