Pune records its third warmest Dec of the decade

Over the years, there is a steady rise in night temperature with December 2019 reporting the warmest in the decade with 13.7 degrees Celsius as the season’s lowest

While the city saw a dip in mercury with 8.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night, December has also been the third warmest month in the last decade. Over the years, there is a steady rise in night temperature with December 2019 reporting the warmest in the decade with 13.7 degrees Celsius as the season’s lowest.

Residents walk on Bajirao road on Tuesday as the city is in the grip of the winter season. (HT PHOTO)

Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather forecasting at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said that such types of variations happen from year to year.

“It is called inter-annual variability. This happens every year. This year, the weather was hotter due to climate change. For Pune, the local orography contributes to the local phenomenon. There will be no more drop in temperature for December. There will be temperature drop further in January. Month to month and from place to place, the meteorological parameters vary,” said Kashyapi.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of private weather forecasting agency Skymet, said that there are cold wave conditions across India, but the intensity and frequency of cold waves is reducing.

“If we see in the last decade or so, the severity of cold waves are increasing. Duration of cold wave is reducing due to climate change. Every New Year is hotter than colder. All extreme weather events are increasing for rain, heat wave and cold wave. There is an increase in extreme weather. We can see a steadily rising graph of overall temperatures,” said Palawat.

He said that there will be an increase in case there is not any immediate measure taken to tackle climate change.

“If the greenhouse gases are reduced then we can see a downward trend. But even for that, we need to dedicatedly work for the next decade before the global average temperature is maintained or reduced,” said Palawat.

Pleasant day and night ahead of Christmas

After two days of cold weather in the city, IMD has forecasted a relief with normal day and temperature for the next few days. “The day temperature will be around 28 degrees Celsius and the night temperature will be around 9 degrees to 10 degrees Celsius in the next few days. The weather in the state will also continue to remain dry with no drop in temperature,” said IMD officials.

The chill factor

*Year--lowest minimum temperature for December for Pune (in degrees Celsius)

*2010--6.5

*2011--7.6

*2012--7.4

*2013--6.8

*2014--7.8

*2015--6.6

*2016--8.3

*2017--8.7

*2018--5.9

*2019--13.7

*2020--8.1

*Source: IMD