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Aug was hottest month in over 100 yrs

On an average, most months of 2009 were hotter than in previous years.

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Data on mean temperatures in 2009 released by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is not very encouraging if you are worried about global warming and climate change. Mean temperatures in most months this year were higher than in previous years, but August 2009 proved to be the hottest August since 1901. And the bad news does not end there.

IMD data indicates that while the mean temperature for August 2009 was 28.39 degrees Celsius (the highest since 1901), that for July 2009 — 28.62 degree Celsius — was the second highest since 1987. And the mean temperature for June was the fourth highest in the last 30 years.

The unusually high temperatures recorded this year have triggered a major debate among experts. Some attribute the rise in mean temperatures to global warming and climate change, while others cautiously interpret the phenomenon as merely ‘cyclical’. An analysis of the recorded temperatures by the Met department states that maximum temperatures were generally above normal over the entire country.

“These were above normal by more than 1 degree Celsius over most parts of the country,” it states. The analysis further states that in some areas such as Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, the adjoining northern parts of Rajasthan and west Madhya Pradesh, and coastal Andhra Pradesh, “the anomalies in the maximum temperature, exceeded 2 degrees Celsius.” The minimum temperatures recorded were also above normal almost everywhere in the country. Former director of Wadia Institute in Dehradun, Dr VC Thakur, said the rise in mean temperature could be a result of global warming. “There is no doubt that global warming is now a distinct reality on earth,” he said. “We are going through a warm period but the question is, how much warmer are we going to get? What will be the impact of this warming on human beings and where will it stop?”

City-based scientist, Dr Bakshi Hardeep Vaid, who works with the Indian Centre for Climate and Societal Impacts Research (ICCSIR) believes that the high mean temperatures could be an indication of climate change. “The earth’s surface temperature has risen by about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years,” he said. “And there is no credible explanation for this other than the net effect of greenhouse gases.” He said that if people kept producing greenhouse gases at increasing rates, the results will almost certainly be disastrous. Higher temperatures could lead to severe floods and droughts, increase in the prevalence of insects, rise in sea levels, and the redistribution of the earth’s precipitation, he said.

(Jumana Shah contributed to this report.)
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