Ooty goes from near-zero temperature to heatwave in just three months

CHENNAI: It was only three months ago that Ooty, the popular hill station in Nilgiris that is frequented by thousands of tourists every year, was in the news after the temperature plummeted to near-zero degree Celsius. Cut to the present, the town is experiencing above-normal heat that is threatening water availability, affecting tourist inflow, and is likely to damage agriculture and the ecology, the full extent of which would be known only in the coming days.

To be clear, biting cold is not a strange affair in Ooty. However, what was different this time was when it happened. While the advent of winter proper is usually in the November-December period, this time it was delayed by a month. In the third week of January, mercury dipped to just 1 degree Celsius in Kanthal and Thalaikuntha, and was a bit higher at 2 degrees Celsius in Botanical Garden.

The sudden and unexpected fall in temperature was not only felt in the bones, it also painted quite a sight, with fields covered in white frost, a thin, white sheet of dew-turned-ice.

Also Read: Not only plains, even Ooty records 4 degrees Celsius above normal

Speaking to the news agency PTI, environmental activist V Sivadas of the Nilagiri Environment Social Trust (NEST), called for a detailed study to understand the causes and effect of such a climatic change that is a big challenge to the Nilgiris district as a whole.

But merely three months since then, the town is recording higher than normal maximum temperature, posing yet another challenge. This time, the pinch is felt by the local administration as well, because the persistently high temperature has resulted in drastic dip in water level in dams that supply drinking water.

Read: Long dry spell leaves even cool Ooty struggling for water

As DT Next reported, the hill station recorded 27.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, which is 4.2 degrees Celsius above normal. That wide a departure falls under the definition of a heatwave. Going by the data from the Indian Meteorological Department, the maximum temperature in the Nilgiris was ‘markedly above normal’ (5.1 degrees Celsius above normal) on April 18, and ‘appreciably above normal’ (3.1 to 5 degrees Celsius) on April 19, 20, 22 and 24. More recently, it was 26.2 degrees Celsius on April 27, up by 2.6 degrees when compared to the normal.

This rise is not limited to maximum temperature alone. The minimum temperature in Ooty was 5.1 degrees Celsius above normal on April 18 and 19, and 3.1 to 5 degrees Celsius above normal on April 20.

Also Read: Work on to desilt and deepen wells in Ooty

The effect of this surge in heat, which is coming in the backdrop of poor South West and North East Monsoons last year, has left reservoirs severely depleted.

As both monsoons failed, Parson’s Valley, the main source of drinking water requirement of the 1,10,540 people in Udhagamandalam, is left with a storage of less than 15 feet as against its full capacity of 50 feet. Factor in the five-feet high silt accumulated in the waterbody, what is left is just 10 feet of water. And because of the scorching summer, almost 1.5 inch of water from the dam evaporates every two weeks, officials told DT Next. If the dry spell continues longer, the hill town may even run out of water.