03 December,2009 09:11 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
For all those Puneites who are planning to take a chilly weekend break in the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar or Panchgani, here's some news. Data recorded by the Indian Meteorological Department shows that the city has been much colder than the nearby hill stations like Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani.
What's more this is the second year in a row that the minimum temperature during winter season has dropped less than that of the hill stations.
According to data obtained by the MET department, the minimum temperature on Wednesday was 12.4u00b0C, while in Mahabaleshwar it was 15u00b0C.
Similarly between December-January last year, Pune's temperature hovered almost 5u00b0C lower than Mahabaleshwar.
Similarly on Monday and Tuesday, the temperature in Pune was 11.3 and 11.5u00b0C as compared to 12.2 and 12.3u00b0C in Mahabaleshwar.
Medha Khole, director of the Central Indian Meteorological Department (weather) said Pune's temperature has been below normal for the past few days.
"In the past couple of days, the temperature was below normal and it returned to normalcy only on Wednesday. Last year, the minimum temperature was consistently lower than Mahabaleshwar. This year we will analyse the data for the next few days to establish a clear trend," said Khole.
Vegetation cover
Meteorologists say the colder temperatures in Pune might be due to loss of the vegetation cover in recent years.
"The data presented isn't unusual. Normally the temperature dips when there is loss of heat from earth surface, this happens during the night. In barren areas, heat loss is more while vegetation traps heat and hence temperature does not dip too much. In last few years the vegetation cover in Pune has diminished which may be one of the reasons for the dip in temperature," said Dr J R Kulkarni, scientist at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
