MONDAY, MAY 06, 2024
PANJIM, APRIL 6
People gulping down bottles of soft drink or asking for chiller mineral water along the roadside restaurants symbolizes the rising mercury in the State. But good news is that the temperatures although have turned up, they are almost one degree lower than last year but the humidity has jumped quite high.
The Met department officials confirmed that the heat is little less compared to last year and the existing irritation is due to humidity which is almost 10 per cent high than normal.
“The average temperature is one degree high than normal this year. But last year, it was almost 1.5 degree higher,” IMD director K V Singh told Herald today.
Last year in March, the highest temperature recorded was 37.9 degree Celsius that was on March 2. In comparison to that, this year, the month of March, saw highest 35.5 degree temperature.
The average maximum temperature this year is 31 degree Celsius as against the last year’s record of 33 degree Celsius. This means, the heat is on but lower than the last year.
Goa has the record of touching 39.8 degree Celsius temperature in the past. Browsing through the earlier records, Singh said that April 7, 1989 had the highest temperature surpassing all earlier records. And the record still stands even eleven years after that woeful day.
Singh said that the rising heat is a normal phenomenon in the summer season but what’s irksome is rise in humidity this year. On Monday, the humidity was 86 per cent, which is almost 10 per cent more than the normal.
“The humidity increases with the wind,” he explained.
Replying to a question, Singh said that it would be premature to predict early rains this year.
