A frost-covered grassland and tea plantation at Chenduvarai, near Munnar, in Idukki on Friday morning. (File Pic)
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In the first probably in two decades, mercury in Munnar hill station dipped to zero degree Celsius in the last week of February as per the temperature readings on Monday morning at Chenduvarai and Letchmi Estate.
At the same time, Munnar town recorded 2 degree Celsius as per the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI) tea research centre records. The day temperature on Monday hovered around 26 degree Celsius.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reading of the same day at the automatic weather station (AWS) at Kundala, near Munnar, was almost in sync with the mercury at 1.7 degree Celsius minimum and a maximum of 22. 9 degree Celsius.
Also as per data from the UPASI, Silent Valley recorded 1 degree Celsius and Mattuppetty recorded 5 degrees Celsius on Monday morning.
UPASI data that The Hindu accessed for the past 21 years (2002 to 2023) show that it was for the first time that Munnar town witnessed a slump in reading to 2 degree Celsius as late as February 27 when mercury should be showing a rising trend. “The last time a temperature this low was recorded was on February 25 and 26 in 2019,” said the official. According to sources, in 2019, Munnar experienced a long winter and the cold wave continued well into February.
Climatologist Gopakumar Cholayil said the phenomenon could be called intra-seasonal variability of winter pattern in Munnar. “Normally, March 1 to May 31 period is called the summer season. But it is now seen that winter continues till the last week of February in Munnar leaving many guessing about what lies in store here in the first week of March,” said Mr. Cholayil.
“The long winter and frost will reflect in the production and quality of tea, including crops, in the next season,” he said. Meanwhile, the long winter provides an extra push to the tourism sector in the hill town. Corroborating this, Idukki District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) secretary Jitheesh Jose said, “normally, the tourist arrival reduces after January. But this year, the tourists continued to arrive even in February.”
