When the rains falter, the true colours of an increasingly concretised and polluted Bengaluru comes to the fore.
With the cooling North-East monsoon having failed, the city’s concrete, asphalt, bitumen and general lack of greenery is playing havoc with the temperature.
Last year, the average maximum temperature for November was 25.7o C. On some days, the mercury went only up to 20.4o C due to the North-East monsoon rains.
This year, the average is a staggering 30.5o Celsius with the maximum being a record high of 31.9o Celsius. No day has seen the maximum temperature below 29o C.
“There are three factors to explain this increase: absolutely no rain received from the North-East monsoon; urban effect where temperatures have gradually risen over the past three decades; and global warming. For Bengaluru, the first two factors contribute to a large chunk of the temperature rise,” said Govindswamy Bala, Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
Heat islands
To find indications of the subtle changes in temperature due to built-up area, one only has to look at Indian Meteorological Department’s heat gradients recorded in the city.
At KIAL, the average maximum temperature is one degree below that in the city. “Even one degree makes a difference to the comfort levels of the city,” says S.M. Metri, Director-in-Charge, IMD, Bengaluru.
The CAOS, whose weather station is situated in the leafy confines of the Indian Institute of Science, notes that the temperature is at least 1.8 degree Celsius lower than that measured in IMD’s station on the busy Palace Road.
Yuktix technologies, which runs an open weather initiative through 12 monitoring stations, records a difference of more than 6o Celsius between its weather stations.
