The dog days of summer are already here in Odisha?

It is the month of Magha when the winter chill is supposed to be fierce. Instead, people have started feeling the heat with increasing temperatures. Starting from coastal pockets to interior Odisha, people all over the state are feeling uneasy with the sudden change in temperature. 

Such weather condition is predicted to continue for four more days. Weather experts are worried about the changing weather patterns in Odisha and termed it as the outcome of climate change.    

As per reports, hot sunny days from the first week of February are making people uneasy. Have a look at the temperatures recorded at different places in the state in the last 24 hours. Titlagarh recorded a temperature of 34.5 degrees Celsius; Bhawanipatna 34.2 degrees; Malkangiri and Paralakhemundi 34 degrees. In the state, 15 towns including Bhubaneswar recorded temperatures over 32 degrees Celsius. 

The night temperatures in coastal pockets increased by 2 to 5 degrees while interior pockets experienced an increase in temperatures by 3 to 7 degrees. 

The regional meteorological centre predicted that hot weather conditions would prevail in the state for four more days.  

A resident of Titlagarh said, "Summer is far and winter is yet to end, but from the beginning of February it feels like hot summer days. All are sweating now.”   

“In this month of Magha, hot days are here making life miserable. One can imagine the kind of dog days lying ahead in Summer,” said a resident of Balasore.          

If the temperatures for the last several years are examined, mercury usually starts rising after the third week of February.  On February 20, 2021, temperatures crossed 40 degrees. However, such a change in the weather patterns and temperatures this time is an exception. 

Meteorologists say the rising temperatures in the first week of February is the outcome of the El Nino effect and climate change. 

Umashankar Das of IMD Bhubaneswar said, “Usually rise in temperatures does not happen so early. If we look at the temperatures in February and March in the last two years, some towns in Odisha were the hottest ones in the country. For such hot weather conditions, only the El Nino effect cannot be blamed.”