Yellow alert for heatwave till March 10, hinterland sizzles

Panaji: India Meteorological Department (IMD), Panaji, extended the yellow-coded heatwave alert to Monday, as the mercury continued to remain high in places outside the city.
On the weekend, Panaji was cooler compared to Mormugao, as IMD recorded a maximum temperature of 34 degrees celsius, only 1.6 degrees above normal, in the city. But in the port town, 36.3 degrees celsius — 4.5 degrees above normal — was recorded on Saturday.
A day earlier, it was 36.4 degrees celsius in the port town. At Old Goa, the meteorological centre at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute recorded a maximum temperature of 38.8 degrees celsius, indicating that the mercury could be soaring in isolated places away from the coast.
“The coastal places are experiencing relatively lower maximum temperatures as compared to the hinterland due to sea breezes,” said M R Ramesh Kumar, the former chief scientist of the National Institute of Oceanography and meteorologist.
The minimum temperature also dropped slightly to 23 degrees celsius in Panaji, just 0.6 degrees above normal while the relative humidity was 70%, only 0.7% above normal on the weekend.
Goa experiences a mild winter chill, mostly during Dec and Jan, but this season has been comparatively warm, as the mercury dropped below 20 degrees celsius only during some days of Jan.
The sultry weather even commenced about a week before the winter could end in Feb. Locals have been facing scorching weather in isolated places for about a fortnight.
“In the coming days, we could expect harsher days due to the heatwave-like conditions during the pre-monsoon phase of March, April, and May,” Kumar said.
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Panaji: India Meteorological Department (IMD), Panaji, extended the yellow-coded heatwave alert to Monday, as the mercury continued to remain high in places outside the city.
On the weekend, Panaji was cooler compared to Mormugao, as IMD recorded a maximum temperature of 34 degrees celsius, only 1.6 degrees above normal, in the city. But in the port town, 36.3 degrees celsius — 4.5 degrees above normal — was recorded on Saturday.
A day earlier, it was 36.4 degrees celsius in the port town. At Old Goa, the meteorological centre at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute recorded a maximum temperature of 38.8 degrees celsius, indicating that the mercury could be soaring in isolated places away from the coast.
“The coastal places are experiencing relatively lower maximum temperatures as compared to the hinterland due to sea breezes,” said M R Ramesh Kumar, the former chief scientist of the National Institute of Oceanography and meteorologist.
The minimum temperature also dropped slightly to 23 degrees celsius in Panaji, just 0.6 degrees above normal while the relative humidity was 70%, only 0.7% above normal on the weekend.
Goa experiences a mild winter chill, mostly during Dec and Jan, but this season has been comparatively warm, as the mercury dropped below 20 degrees celsius only during some days of Jan.
The sultry weather even commenced about a week before the winter could end in Feb. Locals have been facing scorching weather in isolated places for about a fortnight.
“In the coming days, we could expect harsher days due to the heatwave-like conditions during the pre-monsoon phase of March, April, and May,” Kumar said.

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