BENGALURU: The Met department has some good advice for voters: Don’t forget to take along an umbrella and water bottle with your voter IDs as you queue up to vote on Tuesday, for it’s going to be a sultry and sizzling election day.
North Karnataka goes to polls in the second phase of the election in the state. Chikkodi, Belagavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Ballari, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere and Shimoga will choose their Lok Sabha MPs. Political parties had campaigned under an unforgiving sun through April.
According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC) director Srinivas Reddy, most of North Karnataka region, especially Hyderabad-Karnataka region, crossed 41 deg Celsius on Monday, and Tuesday’s temperature is expected to be almost the same. “The temperature is likely to climb higher between 12.30pm to 3pm, and people are requested to vote before 12.30pm or after 3pm,’’ Reddy said.
Ballari, Raichur and Kalaburagi have already crossed 40 deg C and are expected to be the hottest on Tuesday. On Monday, Kalaburagi recorded the highest maximum temperature of 41.6 deg C in the state, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), and the north interior of the state came under a dry spell of weather.
Reddy said there has been 2-3 deg C increase in temperature compared to the average temperature in a normal year in north interior Karnataka. This has been a trend for the past three to four years. “There is a lot more heat nowadays,” he added, adding that rain is unlikely to provide any relief in these parts of Karnataka in the next frew days.