Hyderabad: Summer still hides a storm

Hyderabad: Three incidents of extreme weather conditions in the last two weeks, causing loss of life and property have left Hyderabad reeling. And experts say that there’s more to come.

Meteorology experts from JNTU and the Met department say that the root cause of these events are the high temperatures Hyderabad has been experiencing. IMD as well as accuweather.com predicts that the mercury is set to rise again and will hit 41ºC on Sunday.

Dr M Subbarao, meteorologist from the Institute of Science and Technology, JNTU. said, “As the ground heats up, cumulonimbus clouds are formed by updraft, meaning rising of warm air which also has water vapour. It keeps rising until a point where it cools to such temperature that it cannot hold the water droplets and causes rain.”

High wind speeds are also generated by these clouds. Dr Subbarao said, “At the maximum height of a cumulonimbus cloud the air keeps circulating and the pressure is very high. Naturally, at one point there is downdraft. Air escapes from this high-pressure area to a low-pressure area at the end of the cloud. This is what emerges as high speed winds which last for a small time, around 15 minutes, but measure up to even 100 kmph.”

Another reason for high-speed winds is sometimes other clouds are broken up due to the highly charged and high-pressure environment of cumulonimbus, causing a downdraft.

An IMD official said, “Such extreme weather phenomenon due to cumulonimbus clouds is dangerous and will continue till the monsoon. During monsoon too, such phenomena occur, but rarely. The clouds during monsoon are not as charged as cumulonimbus and they are closer to the ground.”