On Monday, the city came close to breaking its all-time record for the hottest February day, which was recorded in 2005 with a high of 35.9 degree Celsius.

On Monday, the city came close to breaking its all-time record for the hottest February day, which was recorded in 2005 with a high of 35.9 degree Celsius. With the temperature on Monday touching 35.5 degree Celsius, the city has been scorchingly hot in the past few days. Officially, summer is still a few days away. According to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials, this year, there has been a consistent departure of 2-3 degrees from the normal temperatures for February. 

With temperatures hovering around the 35-degree mark for the past few days, stepping out in the afternoons is no longer a pleasure, rued many Bengalureans. “We have seen a few spells of hot weather this February, even before the onset of summer, which is generally declared from March 1.

Several issues, including rapid urbanisation, can be the cause of these weather patterns,” said Geetha Agnihotri, director-in-charge of the Meteorological Centre, Bengaluru. 

According to Indian Meteorological Department Bengaluru director and in-charge CS Patil, one of the reasons for high temperatures across the state is the low moisture content in the soil. However, on Monday, a few towns and cities across coastal and south interior Karnataka recorded temperatures below normal, while isolated places in north interior Karnataka saw temperatures ranging between 3.1 degree Celsius and 5 degree Celsius below normal. 

Agencies

Nasheman News :  Six persons were killed and normal life disrupted as rains accompanied by thunderstorm lashed Kolkata and other southern West Bengal districts on Monday, officials said.

A 20-year-old youth died while trying to get down from a jetty at Jhorkhali in South 24 Parganas district, police said.

Another casualty was a 16-year-old girl of Baruipur who was struck by lightning. She was declared dead on arrival at a hospital.

In Purulia district, the sudden rainfall spoilt a family’s celebration. Pradeep Tantubai, 45, died and two others were injured as a canopy collapsed over them.

Three deaths were reported from West Midnapore district – two people struck by lightning, and another electrocuted.

The Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata said a squall followed by gusty northwesterly wind occurred for a minute at 3.55 a.m. with speed of 44 kmph, followed by highest gust of 56 kmph at 4.25 a.m.

Various parts of Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore and West Midnapore districts reported uprooted trees and electric poles, and damage to shops and other properties.

In Kolkata, arterial rods like Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and Dufferin Road, as also the Maniktala area faced major traffic disruption due to uprooted trees.

The rainfall recorded in the morning was 15.6 mm.

Officials have predicted “thunderstorm with gusty winds and lightning at one or two places in West Bengal” for the next two days.

The state government on Monday asked fishermen not to venture into the deep sea off the Bengal and Odisha coasts and towards the Bangladesh coast due to likelihood of inclement weather on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fishermen in the deep seas have been asked to return to the coast by night.

The maximum recorded temperature in Kolkata was 32.3 degrees Celsius and the minimum 19.4 degrees.

Nasheman News : A fire in the parking lot in front of the Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru, where the Aero India show is underway, gutted around 300 cars on Saturday, police said. No casualties were reported.

The fire is likely to have been caused due to dry grass catching fire aided by high velocity winds, Director General of Police in Karnataka M.N. Reddi told media.

The fire, which began at around 12 noon, quickly burnt down the vehicles parked by visitors and public attending the show at the Indian Air Force base.

It gave out thick black smoke. Attempts were made to control the blaze by creating a gap by removing adjacent cars. 

The fire personnel controlled the blaze by creating a gap by removing adjacent cars, Reddi said. 

“In all, 300 cars were burnt. Fire is fully extinguished now,” Reddi said in a tweet later. 

The exact reason for the fire, however, could not be ascertained from the officials so far. 

Ten 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire. 

The aerial display of aircraft in the afternoon, between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. continued according to schedule. 

Nasheman News :  Thirty houses were damaged by an avalanche that hit Jammu and Kashmir’s Gurez border area. No casualties have been reported so far, officials said.

While 22 houses were completely damaged, eight were partially damaged by the avalanche that hit Khandiyal village in Bandipora district on Thursday evening, officials said.

Authorities have been regularly issuing avalanche warnings for vulnerable areas of the state which has witnessed heavy snowfall this winter.

Nasheman News :India’s domestic air passenger traffic growth slowed in January as airlines cancelled flights due to reasons like weather related events.

According to industry observers, seasonal factors too contributed to slowing of growth rate in January to 9.10 per cent on the year-on-year basis.

In December 2018, the number of passengers flown by domestic airlines grew at 12.91 per cent, while in November it increased 11.03 per cent.

As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, last month passenger traffic grew to 1.25 crore from 1.14 crore in January 2018.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines in January were 125.08 lakh against 114.65 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 9.10 per cent,” the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report here on Wednesday.

According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) — a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline — at 90.9 per cent, followed by GoAir with 87.4 per cent, AirAsia India 88.4 per cent and IndiGo 86.4 per cent in January.

“In January, we recorded 90.9 per cent PLF. This is the 46th month in a row that SpiceJet, among the major scheduled carriers, has flown with the highest loads in the Indian skies,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue Officer, SpiceJet.

“Besides setting new benchmarks in global aviation, this record has helped us establish our pre-eminence as the most preferred airline, month-on-month,” she said.

“The January PLF has shown a decreasing trend compared with previous month due to the end of tourist season,” the DGCA said.

According to the data, GoAir led the industry with 75.9 per cent punctuality rate (on-time performance) at the four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by Vistara (75.3) and IndiGo (69.2).

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for January stood at 1.81 per cent. Also, 917 passenger-related complaints were received last month.

IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 42.5 per cent, followed by SpiceJet (13.3), Air India (12.2), Jet Airways (11.9) and GoAir (8.7).

AirAsia India had a market share of 5.3 per cent, followed by Vistara (3.8), JetLite (1.7) and Trujet (0.5).

“Both air traffic and fares were affected in January largely due to weather and operational factors. Unexpected cancellations of flights by airlines also led to a substantial hike (20-25 per cent) in the last minute domestic airfares,” said Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo.

Fares for major domestic sectors would continue to see an all-time high throughout February, which would further affect the passenger growth, Bajpai said. Travellers can avoid high prices this season by booking tickets, preferably, 15-30 days in advance, he added.

According to Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com: “The percentage of growth has been affected due to unprecedented flight cancellations by various airlines, impacting the overall capacity and market growth”.

“With January marking the end of the holiday season, there has been a dip in travel. But we expect a pickup in demand towards the end of February and March with the semester breaks in schools as well as long weekends like Maha Shivratri and Holi,” Dhall said.

Nasheman News :  Four persons were killed, while 10 went missing and hundreds remained stranded on Friday due to the heaviest spell of snow in Jammu and Kashmir so far this season, authorities said.

Relief teams rescued two persons, including a special police officer (SPO) from debris of an avalanche that hit a police post near the Jawahar Tunnel on Thursday and 10 went missing.

The rescued SPO has been identified as Gulzar Ahmad Mir of Kulgam district. A massive relief and rescue operation was underway for the remaining eight.

Authorities had put the number at six policemen, two Fire and Emergency Services personnel and two prisoners who had gone missing when the police post was hit.

Bodies of two persons killed in Ramsoo-Ramban sector of the Jammu-Srinagar highway were also recovered earlier in the day. They have been identified as Sanjit Lakra of West Bengal and Pramod Mankotia of Himachal Pradesh, police sources said.

A couple was killed while their two children were rescued after an avalanche destroyed their home in Kokernag area of Anantnag district late on Thursday.

The rescue team working near the Jawahar Tunnel has sought helicopter support to augment its efforts.

Multiple avalanches occurred at many other places in the Kashmir Valley, however, due to lack of communication and connectivity the extent of casualties or damage, if any, was not yet clear.

Authorities have shifted 78 families from avalanche-prone areas of Waltangoo Nar and Kund in Kulgam district to safer places.

Seven families were shifted to the Khag police station after an avalanche hit their village in central Badgam district.

Another, 20 families were shifted to safer places from Ganderbal.

Reports of seven to eight feet of fresh snowfall in the higher reaches and one to two feet in the plains in the past 24 hours indicate that this has been the heaviest snowfall of the season so far.

Hundreds of people were stranded in Jammu as the Jammu-Srinagar highway was shut for the third consecutive day after multiple avalanches and landslides hit various stretches of the 300-km long road.

Hundreds of Kashmiris were reported to be stranded in Delhi as flight operations remained disrupted since Wednesday and were completely closed at the Srinagar international airport on Thursday.

Morning flights could not operate to and from the Srinagar airport but operations were likely to resume shortly as the weather has improved significantly.

Electric power supply, water supply and road connectivity was also severely affected in the state.

Senior engineers of the electricity department said they supplied 850 megawatts of power to the valley on Thursday against the usual 1,200 megawatt requirement.

Despite these figures, most areas in the Valley and also some in Srinagar city remained without electric supply during the last 36 hours.

Water supply in areas where electricity is needed to operate drinking water plants has also remained adversely affected.

Roads in Srinagar and those connecting different district headquarters have remained partially closed since Thursday. 

Restoration of all road links in Srinagar city and inter district road connectivity was expected to be completed by afternoon.

Availability of essential commodities including food items and petroleum products has been hit by continued closure of the strategic Janmu-Srinagar highway through which all essentials supplies are routed into the landlocked valley.

Mutton, poultry products and vegetables have vanished from markets in Srinagar city and other places.

Alarmed by depleting stocks of petroleum products, local administration has ordered rationing of petrol and diesel till the supply position improves.

This season’s snowfall has dispelled fears of water shortage in rivers, lakes, streams and springs during the coming summer months.

At the same time, the vagaries of nature have also taken their toll causing serious hardships to the people

Nasheman News : Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan on Wednesday unveiled the ‘Darwaza Band -Part 2’ campaign films, which focus on sustaining the open defecation free (ODF) status of villages across the country.

Launched by Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Grameen, the campaign is produced by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and supported by the World Bank.

At the event, Amitabh gave a brief background to the development of the campaign and mentioned that the campaign talks about how a toilet must be used by all, always and under all circumstances (‘har koi, har roz, hamesha’), read a PIB statement.

He also dedicated a re-adaptation of a poem of his father, the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan to the Swachh Bharat Mission — “Swachh Tann , Swachh Mann, Swachh Bharat, Mera Parichay”.

Maharashtra’s Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Babanrao Lonikar, Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and other dignitaries were a part of the event.

Lonikar said the Centre and state together had spent over Rs 6,000 crore on sanitation in Maharashtra and over three crore people have stopped defecating in the open in the state.

Iyer said over 50 crore people stopped defecating in the open since the launch of the SBM and with over 5.5 lakh villages having already been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), the national sanitation coverage is now in excess of 98 per cent, compared to 39 per cent in 2014.

He said the primary focus of the programme is on behaviour change and promoting sustainable usage of toilets, at both community and village levels.

The officials thanked Amitabh for his continued support to SBM.

Nasheman News : Dense fog descended over the national capital on a cold Monday morning bringing down visibility to 50 metres disrupting road, rail and air traffic as the minimum temperature was recorded at 8 degrees Celsius, one notch below normal.

Visibility was zero at 7.30 a.m. at Palam, the Met Office said. Humidity was 100 per cent at 8.30 a.m.

“There was dense to very dense fog in parts of Delhi. The sky will remain partially cloudy during the day with haze and smog thereafter,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The intense fog made the Delhi Traffic Police issue an advisory which asked drivers to use low beam head lights, avoiding overtaking and checking weather updates before leaving house. 

Low visibility contributed to the delaying of 27 Delhi-bound trains.

The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said there have been some “dynamic delay” in some flights leaving the Indira Gandhi International Airport but not a single flight has been cancelled despite the low visibility. 

“There was not a single cancellation or diversion of flight at the Delhi Airport on Monday. There could be of up to 15-20 minutes delay in departures as per the Air Traffic Control (ATC). 

“The runway visibility had improved to 150 metres after sometime,” a DIAL spokesperson told media. 

The visibility improved to 2,000 metres by 10.30 a.m. at Safdarjung, the IMD said, however, it was poor at Palam adjacent to the airport, where it was 300 metres. 

One of the reasons cited for the sudden dense fog was calm winds and rains in the preceding days. 

“Rains and calm winds contributed to the forming of the fog. It was expected to happen on Sunday too, but winds with speed around 10-15 kmph scattered them,” Mahesh Palawat of Skymet said. 

The fog will continue for the next couple of days due to a western disturbance approaching on Tuesday, which will lead to a change in the direction of the wind. 

There was no rainfall in the past 24 hours. The IMD forecast light rains accompanied by thunderstorm or hail from Tuesday till Thursday that will reduce the likelihood of fog, he added. 

On Sunday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 19.9 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal for this time of the year and the minimum was at 9.4 degrees Celsius, one above average. 

Nasheman News :  At least 21 people were killed as a Polar Vortex continued to freeze the US Midwest, dipping temperatures to record lows in the region, the media reported.

The Polar Vortex, which is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s North and South Poles, arrived earlier this week and has for days disrupted life across the entire region, reports The New York Times.

The Midwest region comprises Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

According to officials, the victims included a University of Iowa student, a woman found frozen to death inside a Milwaukee apartment after the thermostat malfunctioned and a man wgi died while using a snowblower in Buffalo.

On Wednesday, a low of minus 30.5 degrees Celsius was registered in Chicago, which also recorded wind chills, while the city of Rockford in Illinois saw temperatures plummet to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. 

Mount Carroll, Illinois, recorded minus 38 degrees Celsius on Thursday. If this confirmes, it would become the state’s record low, supplanting the previous record of minus 36.

The sustained cold taxed energy systems across the Midwest, leading to some power failures and urgent calls to customers to reduce the heat in their homes.

Many schools, businesses and restaurants remained shut on Thursday.

By Thursday evening, airlines had cancelled more than 2,300 flights in the US, according to FlightAware. On Wednesday, cancellations topped 2,700.

Throughout the Midwest, hospitals reported patients arriving with symptoms tied to the weather such as frostbite or hypothermia.

Nasheman News : Four minor earthquakes within seven hours hit the Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat on Sunday but there were no reports of casualties or damages.

According to the Institute of Seismological Research in Gujarat, the tremors were felt in a span of seven and a half hours, with the first measuring 1.4 on the Richter scale with the epicentre eight km from Bachahu in Kutch region.

The second major tremor measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale was felt at 12.23 p.m. with the epicentre 38 km from Saurashtra’s Una. The focus of the tremor was located at a depth of 19.7 km, it said.

The third tremor measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale was felt three minutes later with the epicentre 29.6 mm from Bhachau in Kutch region.

The fourth tremor measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale was felt at 1.37 p.m. with the epicentre some 31 km from Surendranagar in Saurashtra region.