Pune: Hyderabad is among the 10 major cities in the country where the annual mean temperature has risen at a rate that is significantly higher than other cities over the last four decades.
A recent study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland, lists Hyderabad along with Delhi, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Chennai as cities with significant temperature rise between 1971-2013.
The highest rise in mean temperature was in Jaipur (0.38°C), followed by Bengaluru (0.23°C) and Nagpur (0.21°C).
The study showed that even hill stations Srinagar, Shimla, Darjeeling and Kodaikanal recorded a rise in temperatures over the last 40 years till 2013.
The maximum and minimum in these hill stations had gone up by 0.4°C and 0.22°C per decade.
IITM’s D R Kothawale, who headed the research, said the rise in maximum temperatures was slower in major and medium cities as the increase depends on factors such as solar radiation and aerosol concentration. He said that the annual mean temperature of all coastal stations showed a significant increasing trend.
Nine major cities -Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Chennai -showed significant increasing trends in minimum temperature after 1971, whereas the maximum temperature during this period showed a significant increasing trend in six major cities -Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Chennai.
“What is clear is that during the past period, 19011970, when urbanisation was not rapid, only three major cities -Kolkata, Surat and Mumbai -showed a significant increasing trend in mean temperatures while four major cities -Ahmedabad, Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad -showed a decreasing trend,“ Kothawale said.
Courtesy: TOI