This winter has been one of the colder ones for south India. And even as the season is coming to a close, temperatures seem to be seeing a dip.
Weather blogger Tamil Nadu Weatherman announced on Facebook on Thursday morning that it had been the coldest day of the season in Tamil Nadu in many years.
“Madhavaram in Chennai is shivering at 15.5 C while Hosur in Krishnagiri is shivering at 7 C will u believe it (sic),” he wrote, along with the district wise breakdown of temperatures.
See his full post here.
Earlier, Chennai had seen the coldest night of the season on January 6 when the temperature dropped to a low 19 C. The temperature was a degree lower in Meenambakkam at 18.2 C.
Tamil Nadu Weatherman Pradeep John told TNM, that they were expecting temperatures to plummet, and then rise. “We are also expecting some rain for Tamil Nadu. It is not that it is getting colder. Easterlies (a type of wind) don't bring colder temperatures. Easterlies bring in moisture. It may increase night temperatures. Though it is hazy in Chennai, not a single cloud was there last night. Because of the lack of cloud cover, you see a dip in night time temperature,” he said.
Not just Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad also recorded very low temperature on February 1 – the coldest in six years in fact. Experts attributed it to cold winds from easterly and north easterly regions over Telangana.
Hyderabad shivered at 12.8 C on February 1, and it was about four degrees lower than the mean minimum temperature for February – 18.3 C.
The last time the temperature was this low in February in Hyderabad was on February 5, 2011. The lowest temperature to have been recorded in February in the city is 8.9 C in 1911.
A severe cold wave warning was issued on Thursday by the IMD in northern districts of Telangana like Khammam, Adilabad and Medak.
According to IMD data, Adilabadad recorded the "lowest minimum temperature of 7 C in the plains of the region."
SSV Gavaskar, a scientist at the Karnataka Disaster Monitoring Centre, said that the reason for the dropping temperature was an anti-cyclonic circulation over the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh region, which was causing colder winds to blow towards the southern region.
The cold was felt in parts of Karnataka as well in the last two days, although it was not the coldest in the season.
“In the past ten years, we have seen temperatures dropping to 12 C on January 16, 2012 and 12.1 C on January 19, 2009 as well. This is not very uncommon,” he says.
In the past two days, temperatures dropped in Bengaluru to between 11 C and 13 C. The coldest night of the season, however, was on January 20 when the temperature dipped to 11.7 C, according to KDMC data.
The lowest dip in the last two days was recorded in Tumkur district where the mercury went down to 7 C.
But Gavaskar says that we have to wait till February 15, the ending of the season, to establish the lowest temperatures in Karnataka.