Residents of the coastal region in general and Mangaluru in particular have been experiencing a novel phenomenon this winter with reduced temperatures.
People in the region, who have never heard of “cold” as such before, have started wearing sweaters and sporting shawls during their early morning walks even as the arrival of several flights at the Mangaluru International Airport have often been delayed in the last about a month or so due to thick fog.
The minimum temperature has been around 20 degrees Celsius these days, a degree less than the normal minimum temperature during the season, while the maximum temperature too has seen a dip by about one degree Celsius.
Nishanth Kumar, a newspaper hawker in the city who has to wake up early in the morning to fulfil his obligation, said that the weather has been cooler this time compared to the previous years. On the other hand, temperatures in the hinterland have been lesser than the ones recorded in Mangaluru because of vegetation, including coconut and areca plantations. Farmers have been experiencing a “Malnad winter”, said Dhananjay, a farmer in Puttur. A senior official with the India Meteorological Department, Bengaluru, said that there was no specific reason for the slight drop in the temperature. The phenomenon is being witnessed in other parts of the State too, he noted.
