BERHAMPUR: Residents of Silk City, Gopalpur and Paralakhemundi woke up to dense fog on Monday morning, unusual during this time of May when these areas are reeling under sweltering heat for the last few days.
“In our neighbourhood, the fog was visible since dawn. Till 7 am, the scenario persisted. However, the fog gradually cleared as the day progressed,” said Sudesh Patra, a resident of Braja Nagar.
Sujit Bisoi, a resident of Paralakhemundi, said the situation was similar in Palace town in Gajapati district. “Cars had their headlights on in the morning due to fog. The morning landscape looked exactly like winter,” he said.
After the fog cleared, the temperature of the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border town increased and crossed 40 degrees Celsius around noon, he added.
Locals expressed surprise at the drastic change in the weather.
The Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, also confirmed fog in Gopalpur with a visibility of 800 metres. The minimum temperature was recorded at 26 degrees Celsius, sources said.
Uma Shankar Das, a senior scientist of the metrological centre, said, “Fog in the coastal belt of the state during the summer is not unusual. We have previously seen this occurrence during summers in coastal areas.”
Pratap Kumar Mohanty, former professor, Marine Science, Berhampur University, described the fog as the low-level stratus clouds. “These are formed due to a lot of moisture in the atmosphere ” he said.
Mohanty said the recent movement of severe cyclonic storm Mocha over the Bay of Bengal has helped in transportation of warm air from the western part of the country, which facilitated the condensation process at low level and formation of low-level stratus clouds, which appeared like fog.
Sudhir Rout, an environmental activist, blamed rampant cutting of trees, environmental pollution and insufficient rainfall as well the resultant climate change for this phenomenon.
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