Recent colds for a day or two have made the people of Odisha to experience its glimpse in the winter this year. The winter season, which starts in the month of October normally, has yet to peak up when December is about to end.
January usually remains unpredictable as the temperature randomly fluctuates raising to a high of 370 C in near past. If the present version of cold continues till February, at least the season would not be skipped to be blanketed in. A six seasoned year, which has been squeezed to three seasons, is about to lose winter, the symptom of which is getting clear for us.
The cold wave condition in the State is rarely felt now. You will hardly find the silvery tints on the foliage, the pearly lustrous dew drops in grass tips in the early winter morning. Also you would not feel a bone breaking cold to rediscover your shivering body near a wooden fire with a cup of tea touching the lips.
Daringbadi, traditionally the coldest spot in Odisha, has just attained 9.50C while Keonjhar, Jharsuguda, Phulbani, Sambalpur and Koraput are rolled down to a minimum temperature of 10.0, 10.3, 11.0, 11.50, and 12.80 C respectively. This condition shall sustain even for a week as predicted by the Meteorological Department.
Odisha enters to winter just after the monsoon returns. The moisture contents in the atmosphere recedes, humidity falls down and the north wind starts blowing to break out the winter. Filled in tanks, ponds, nalas in plenty along with tight bank flowing rivers and watery/wet paddy fields catch hold the winter as local factors.
Tracking down the weather pattern since Fani in May 2019, much has not been found adverse except the wind pattern. The rainfall was normal and well distributed though predicted undervalued due to El Nino. But now the rivers remain dry immediately after the rainy season and other water bodies including ponds are in the state of extinction. Wind speed was within 5 km/h during the last two months, which seemed to be stable and not able to carry with the northern cold.
The impact of climate change, doubtlessly, is in force in Odishan territory. Year over year summer turns terrific in temperature and engulfs the long existed cool areas like Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj etc. Average rise in temperature in the State, so to say, is in tune with or exceeds the other affected areas in the country. The State will witness an average summer temperature rise of 3.320 C from 28.870 C in 2010 to 32.190C by 2100, says a study by Climate Impact Lab in collaboration with the Tata Centre for Development at Chicago.
The study demands that this average temperature will be significantly higher than the national average of 280C by the end of 2020. Such rise in temperature may cause additional 4,200 deaths every year in Odisha, the report expresses. The apprehension is unrealistic, you can’t call. The 1998 death toll of 2,042 due to heat stroke must be kept in mind as base line.
The global hike in carbon emission is not getting paused at all. Our dependence on perpetual resources has not been geared up as has been continuously thought during last few decades. In Odisha also, the case is appearing worst by rampant fossil fuel burning in industries like thermal power plants, iron and steel industries in particulars. The co-contributors are the expansive mining activities and downstream industries.
Mining of iron, coal and bauxite nucleating the northern, western and southern Odisha respectively up bring the heat sink there. The coastal tract flattened centrally accomplishes the artisanal mining of sand and building stones all along the network of river beds and Eastern Ghats. All of them add to the urbanization induced GHG outburst enveloping the heat at lower strata of the atmosphere.
The slowdown in the cold condition is abrupt in Odisha this year. Expectation is at halt while January, the culminating month in winter, is approaching. Having kept aside the eventuality of regular reasons, visits of two cyclones Fani and Bulbul within a gap of four months devastated the vegetation in coastal districts. The winter harvest of crops by machines especially paddy generates lot of remains at fields which are set on fire there. It is unimaginative to find that the methane produced from the crop abuses measures the highest. The bit of the cold that access hinterland is countered by the local heat from firm fire and GHG produce. A mild cold musing in Odisha this year is certainly a sign of hot cashing the eastern frontier at the edge of Bay of Bengal.
(The writer is Head, PG Department of Geology, Utkal University, Email: debanandabeura@rediffmail.com)