KERALA REELS UNDER HEAT WAVE, MAY HIT 40°C

Kerala is reeling under sweltering heat and the weather office is warning of more heat in the days to come. The worst part is that summer is yet to start.

Six districts, including Kollam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kannur and Kozhikode, have already seen a sudden rise of 2-3 degree centigrade in temperature and the warning is more grim, with average temperature for most of the state forecast to cross 36 degree C.

Palakkad, which is generally hotter than the other parts, hit 38 degree and it could even touch 40 and rise further, according to the Met office. Kottayam and Kollam haver recorded 37 degree C while Thrissur has seen some of its areas crossing 36.

It has been unusually hot this year. According to the weather department, by the first week of February itself temperature began hitting 35 in places. And, if summer rains do not occur, there is more trouble in store.

Perhaps by the middle of the next week, there could be some rain in certain parts. If the summer rains materialise, the chances are fairly good, there would be some respite. Otherwise, the situation will be grim, with people facing the risk of sunstroke.

Already, the authorities have announced curbs for labourers working in the open between 12pm and 3pm.

Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, says like the intense rains that brought havoc in the state, there could be intense heat wave as the atmosphere over the Arabian Sea has undergone a drastic change.

According to him, the sea temperature is changing and along with it the climate under the influence of global warming. The number of cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea over the past four decades has gone up considerably.

Koll says Kerala and other south Indian states could see floods and drought alternatively, and the only way to cope with the changes is to be prepared for the worst.