Finally, the hill station of Munnar is experiencing chilly winter.
Local people say the hill station has been experiencing cold weather for the past two days and the temperature dropped to 0°C at the Upper Gundumala division and Devikulam ODK (Old Devikulam) on Sunday.
On his Facebook page, Devikulam MLA A. Raja says the hill station is experiencing extreme cold with Munnar experiencing sub-zero temperatures.
Sojan Munnar, coordinator of My Munnar Movement, says the hill station experienced freezing weather for the first time this year. “We hope the temperature will drop to sub-zero level in the coming days. The normal extreme cold weather was absent in the hill station in the last week of December and the first week of January,” says Mr. Sojan.
According to climate experts, the regular winter season starts in November, with extreme cold experienced in the first week of January. Usually, in the first week of January, the valleys and hills are covered with frost. But this year, extreme cold climate was absent till the last week of January.
Climatologist Gopakumar Cholayil says the absence of chilly weather in January indicates that ‘climate variability’ has changed in Munnar. “This year, chilly weather skipped the hill station till the last week of January. For the past several years, the hill station has been experiencing a rare weather pattern during winter,” he says.
“Munnar has not recorded sub-zero temperature so far this year. The temperature was 4°C on Sunday and Monday,” says an official of the United Planters Association of South India, a tea research foundation at Nallathanni, near Munnar.
According to Kannan Devan Hills Plantation data, Letchmi recorded 3°C, Chundavurrai 4°C, Silent Valley 4°C, Devikulam 4°C, Sevenmallay 5°C, R&D Mattupetti 6°C, and Kannianallay 6°C on Monday.
