Bengaluru, Jan 25 (DHNS): The three coastal districts of Karnataka have been reeling under unusually high temperatures in the last one week. On Monday, Puttur in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district and Kumta in Uttara Kannada (UK) district reported 39 degrees Celsius, while parts of Udupi district have reported 38 degrees Celsius.

Describing the temperatures as unusually high, S S M Gavaskar, scientist at Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, said that in January, the temperature usually hovers around 35 degrees Celsius in DK and Udupi districts. The minimum temperature in the coastal districts was between 12 and 16 degrees Celsius on Monday.

Gavaskar said, “Around 2.15 pm on Monday, Puttur recorded 39 degrees Celsius. This was unusual. On the whole, the three coastal districts have recorded 3-5 degrees Celsius appreciably above normal temperature from January 16 to 22. This is mainly because of clear skies.”

In 2016, Mangaluru recorded 37.6 degrees Celsius on January 31, the maximum temperature that month. The district average temperature for January is 33.5 degrees Celsius, but this time around the average is 36.5 degrees Celsius, Gavaskar said.

The rest of the state, however, is normal. Between January 16 and 23, the lowest temperature, 8 degrees Celsius, was reported from Hassan and Chikkamagaluru districts. The maximum temperature in the Malnad region has not crossed 33 degrees Celsius in the last week.

In case of Bengaluru Urban, the lowest recorded temperature was 10 degrees Celsius on January 10 and the maximum has not crossed 32 degrees Celsius. Even Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru and Kolar have recorded a minimum temperature of 11 degrees Celsius.

To a question whether the state would face a harsher summer this year, Gavaskar said, “No... so far there are no indications to this effect. Except the coastal districts, the rest of the districts are going through normal season. Last year the entire country witnessed a harsh summer.”