The steady dip in mercury levels in the Agency areas of the district during the past five days is giving tourists an exhilarating experience. The lowest minimum temperatures are recorded during December and January every year at Lammasingi (popularly known as Lambasingi) in the district.
Lambasingi does not have a weather station or observatory but the temperature there is estimated to be about 2° degree Celsius below that recorded at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Chintapalli, which has an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) and a manual observatory.
Chintapalli recorded 5.8° degree Celsius, the lowest temperature during this season on Sunday (December 19). The minimum temperatures recorded during the previous five days are: December 15 - 14.5° C, December 16 - 13° C, December 17 – 8.4° C and December 18 – 6.1° Celsius. The temperature at Lambasingi is estimated to be 3.8° degree Celsius on Sunday.
The lowest December temperature, recorded at RARS, Chintapalli, during the last 20 years, is 0.4° Celsius on December 24, 1996, 1° Celsius on December 30, 1998 and 1.5° C on December 31, 2018 and 2° Celsius on December 15, 2000. The lowest temperature recorded in January, at Chintapalli, is: 0° degree Celsius on January 6, 1992, 1° C on January 5, 1999, January 17, 2003 and January 15, 2012, and 1.5° C on January 3 and 4, 2008. The temperatures on all these occasions at Lambasingi are estimated to be sub-zero.
While tourists coming on short trips are enjoying the chilly weather, the local people are finding it hard to perform their daily chores in the biting cold. “The sun can be seen up in the sky only after 9 a.m. and goes down by 4 p.m. in winter. We can’t use hot water for every need, and touching normal water is like putting our hand in the freezer,” says R.V. Ramanamma, a teacher at Chowdupalli school of Chintapalli mandal.
“The low temperatures in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam is a common feature every year. The dry and cold northerly winds coming from the Himalayas and north India are sweeping across the country, including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States, the drop in temperature with increasing height, and radiation cooling effect during nights are the reasons for the dip in temperatures,” says P.V. Rama Rao, a retired Director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Meanwhile, the IMD has reported that the minimum temperatures are likely to be 1 to 2° Celsius below the normal across Andhra Pradesh till December 27.
Published - December 20, 2021 01:07 am IST
