The earlier high temperatures recorded were 38.1°C on March 13, 1985, and 37.6°C on March 9, 2008.
IMD, Bangalore, director B Puttanna told TOI: “There will no change for the next three or four days since the weather is dry and there’s no moisture. The main reason for the high temperature there is no clouding. The coast is getting easterly winds instead of northerly winds, which blow from the sea side and bring temperature down.”
There might be some respite in April, he said, when wind changes direction.
Regarding Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district recording a maximum temperature of 42°C — a reading put out by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, an autonomous body affiliated to the department of science and technology — Puttanna said IMD does not accept these figures.
“They have established weather-monitoring equipment without our directions and calibration. The readings can be erroneous. A temperature of 42°C is usually recorded in north Karnataka, which has still not recorded such high temperatures. In the coast, we cannot expect temperatures to cross 39°C,” he said.
On March 7, 2013, Mangalore had recorded 36.6°C, a tad below Thursday’s 36.9°C.
Puttanna said the temperatures have been rising since March 9.
