To avoid ‘melting’ stay in from 3-4 pm

The hottest hour of the day in summer in Hyderabad is between 3 pm and 4 pm, though the temperature starts climbing from noon and stays high till 4 pm. This phenomenon is called “long wave radiation” and is particularly felt in a city like Hyderabad that has a rocky terrain which begins absorbing the sun’s radiation from the time the sun rises.

“It takes a few hours for the earth to heat up. Once that is done, the heat will reverse upwards, heat up the immediate layers of the atmosphere, and thus the hottest hour is between 3 and 4 pm, though the sun is at its maximum from noon onwards,” says N. Narsimha Rao, retired assistant meteorologist, IMD Hyderabad.

He added that not just Hyderabad, other districts too experience this because Telangana is not located at a great height above sea level and is landlocked.

This phenomenon does not exist in Coastal Andhra because the sea breeze starts blowing inland, cooling the land by 1.30 pm. But Rayalaseema witnesses a similar situation as Telangana as it too is landlocked.

We are likely to see more of this phenomenon as the local weather department has issued a warning for March 31 and April 1 for Telangana and Rayalaseema.

Maximum temperatures will continue to be two degrees above normal at above 40 degrees Celsius in some places in all the districts.