Mysuru:  The cultural capital of the State, which was once considered an air-conditioned city, is seeing a sea-change in weather condition, especially during summer. Day-by-day temperature is soaring high and people are trying to quench their thirst by trying out various kinds of cool drinks.

This year, people began to experience heat from February itself, with temperatures touching 37 to 38 degree celsius. However, during the same time last year (2017) due to sufficient rains, there was a dip in temperature. But this year, the temperature has gone up considerably and people especially the children and the aged prefer to remain indoors during afternoons.

People are experiencing sweating in the city that is normally associated with coastal towns and cities and in the northern part of the country where there is extremities in the temperature.

From the beginning of April itself, 37 to 38 degree celsius is recorded. This is an indication that the temperature is likely to soar further. If it does not rain then there is a chance of temperature touching 40 degrees.

Cool drinks and tender coconut

One of the best ways to beat the heat is to consume a lot of fluids as the body is dehydrated. And this is the season when people make a beeline to cool drink parlours, tender coconut sellers and juice centres and all of them are doing good business.  The price of tender coconut has gone up from Rs. 25 to Rs. 40.

Tender coconut juice

There is a demand for tender coconut and Kokum (Punarpuli) juice which  ‘Lakshmi Tiffanys,’ a hotel on Tyagaraja Road near Agrahara Circle, run by Mallesh, specialises.  

 

The ingredients  for this tender coconut juice that is in great demand includes lemon juice, glucose and basil (sabja) seeds. This is the only hotel that serves this summer special tender coconut concoction and people from across the city come here just to savour this sharbat.

‘If rain fails temperature will rise to 40 degree celsius’

If we do not receive rainfall shortly, the temperature is likely to touch 40 degree celsius. It had rained about 10 mm to 20 mm last month and the water did not percolate to the soil but instead evaporated resulting in humidity. Hence, even if the temperature is 37 degrees, the feeling is as if the temperature has touched 40 degree celsius. The trend is that there is a chain like cloud formation over the Arabian Sea. Wherever the clouds gather it condenses and there is sporadic rain. If it does not condense, then the clouds move to South interior Karnataka.  There is a fluctuation in temperature and if at night it comes down to 36 degree celsius, in the morning it again goes up by a degree up to noon. However, the reason why we feel hotter in the afternoon is because there is no wind movement and hence the relative humidity in temperature goes up.

—Dr. C. Govindaraju, Professor (Plant Protection), Organic Farming Research Station, Naganahalli