If you are drowned in sweat every evening and think that Ranchi’s climate has changed a lot since the pleasant old days then you are wrong in the eyes of weather department and scientists.
“The variable conditions are a result of day-to-day change in the weather system,” said Director & Scientist Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Ranchi, GK Mohanty.
In the last 10 days highest humidity in the evening was recorded at 55 per cent while the lowest humidity stood at 16 per cent. During the same period the maximum humidity on a day stood at 72 per cent on the morning of May 22.
According to IMD Ranchi, humid conditions are precursor of transition in weather and it increases the possibility of rain. “Easterly winds carry a lot of moisture and helps in building of clouds, leads to squall and even rain,” said an official of IMD.
Humid evening is the result of easterly wind which blows for a specific duration until it is replaced by dry westerly wind.
Notwithstanding, the common belief among the people of Ranchi, the uncomfortable summer is a normal phenomenon with nothing unusual to term it change big enough to cause worry.
Mohanty added, “We cannot say that the climate has changed. Climate change has a very broad meaning.”
The fallacy behind surge in ultra violet (UV) index and crossing the comfortable zone was also rubbished by the IMD Scientist. “Even in the case of UV rays the prevailing level is common,” added Mohanty.
Incidentally, UV is greatest when the sun is at its highest in the sky (between 10 am and 4 pm) and less in the early morning and late afternoon. While UV exposure is the greatest in the summer, it reaches Earth every day. The UV rays are strongest at the equator and gets weaker as one move towards the poles.