BHUBANESWAR: IIt's hot. More importantly, it is humid. Not just humid but staggeringly humid. That’s what many parts of coastal and interior Odisha is reeling under. With Yaas’ departure and monsoons still a fortnight away, sweltering conditions have hit normal life.
The usually cool Daringbadi, a hill-station, recorded 100 per cent (pc) relative humidity. Boudh reported 86 per cent. In Puri, it was 81 per cent and 80 per cent at Paradip. The Twin City of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack had a tough time dealing with 75 per cent relative humidity.
Weather experts say, after the heavy rains triggered by very severe cyclonic storm Yaas, there is plenty of moisture available due to which the humidity content has increased in Odisha. They also attribute the hot and humid conditions to the coastal winds carrying moisture towards the State.
“If the relative humidity is about 80 pc, the real feel temperature seems to be 5 to 6 degree Celsius higher than the actual mercury level,” said Scientist of Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre, Umasankar Das.
As the moisture level is high, people are uncomfortable. “The higher the humidity, the more water vapour the air contains. When humidity starts to rise, sweat cannot evaporate and provide cooling relief as the air is already full of water vapour,” said Das. Higher moisture availability also lessened the gap between minimum and maximum temperatures in the State.
While Puri recorded the highest minimum temperature of 29.6 degree Celsius at 8.30 am on Monday, Paradip reported 29.4 degree followed by Gopalpur 29.3 degree, Bhubaneswar 29 degree and Cuttack 28 degree.
Seven places in the State recorded 40 degree Celsius or more maximum temperature on the day. Titlagarh was the hottest at 41.2 degree Celsius, while Sonepur and Bhawanipatna recorded 41 degree each.