The green city ‘Chandigarh’ is becoming hotter every year. The city is getting warmer with increasing minimum temperature levels each year.
A study conducted by Chandigarh Meteorological Department has revealed that there has been a significant increase in minimum temperature levels in all months and seasons in past four decades.
The Met Department has recently conducted a study to analyze long term variability (i.e. monthly, seasonal and annual) in precipitation and temperatures for Chandigarh based upon observed data of last four decades (year 1971-2011).
The study has pointed out that the rate of warming is higher in the month of March followed by May and February than the rest of months. In seasons, summer is getting more warmer every year.
Also, Chandigarh is experiencing prolonged summer and post monsoon season now every year. The study has put forth that the rate of increase in summer and post monsoon season is higher than winter and monsoon seasons in last 40 years. According to the analysis, an increase (standard deviation) of 0.58 degree Celsius in mean maximum temperature has been observed every year. And, a deviation of 0.5 degree Celsius in mean minimum temperature levels is recorded annually.
The extreme weather events like precipitation days, hot days, thunderstorms days, shows a decreasing trend except for foggy days which have increased significantly in the city in last four decades.
The analysis stated that the average of maximum and minimum temperatures for the city for the period of year 1971-2011 is 30.4 degree Celsius and 17.4 degree Celsius respectively.
May and June are the hottest months with mean maximum temperature of about 38 degree Celsius and January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperature of about 7 degree Celsius.
The seasonal analysis has further indicated increasing trends in annual mean minimum temperature levels in summer post monsoon, winter season and decreasing trends in monsoon season.
While talking to The Pioneer, Surender Paul, Director Chandigarh Meteorological Department said that the study has been conducted to observe changing trends in temperature levels.
He said, “The analysis of last four decades has indicated that the mean maximum temperatures are decreasing in all months except for February, March, July and August which shows increasing trends. “The seasonal mean maximum temperature shows decreasing trends in all seasons except for summer season, which shows increasing trend in maximum temperature levels. The mean minimum temperatures are increasing in all months and seasons except for the month of June which shows decreasing trends each year,” he added.
He further said, “The coefficient of variability is highest in post monsoon season and lowest in annual. The corresponding values of deviation are 1.05 for post monsoon, 0.74 for summer, 0.67 for winter, 0.32 for monsoon, 0.27 for annual.”
Draft of climate change action plan prepared
To mitigate the negative impacts of climate change in the union territory of Chandigarh, the Administration has prepared a draft of action plan on climate change. The proposed action plan lays out a strategy including specific policy recommendations that should be adopted in Chandigarh to address various environment related concerns including the emissions of greenhouse gases.The action plan has recommended adopting policy of congestion tax. The congestion tax would be the fee charged on motor vehicles plying within the congestion charge zone in the city during few hours daily.
Evincing concerns over the ever-increasing vehicular population in Chandigarh, the action plan has further proposed bringing in a policy to restrict number of vehicles per household and also to scrutinize the residential parking space of concerned applicant before issuing vehicle registration numbers here.