Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 9
Sudden rain accompanied by cold winds and hailstorm lashed Dimapur on Saturday afternoon, causing a major dip in the mercury level which brought chilly conditions in the commercial hub.
State capital Kohima, already gripped by a cold wave, also reported heavy rainfall and thunder storm in the evening plunging the temperature to the minimum degree Celsius.
This is the first showers of the year and despite the biting cold, many took it as blessing. Residents in a number of colonies were seen collecting rain water.
It is not just Nagaland but the entire North East region that is seeing minimum temperatures plunging to new levels and settling in single digits for the last few days, even reporting some record low temperatures.
On December 28, 2015 Kohima in Nagaland recorded night temperature at 1°C, which is the lowest minimum after 2009 when the State capital recorded sub-zero temperature.
Saturday’s unexpected rain and hailstorm has prompted concerns whether it was an impact of climate change or it was just a one-off phenomenon. The Indian Institute of Science only recently cautioned Nagaland that it is vulnerable to climate change-accentuated by the dwindling forest area.
Hail storm or rain in January does not necessarily have to be attributed to climate change, according to Lochumi, SDO and in-charge of Meteorological department when contacted. Such weather condition can also be caused by sea depression, she maintained.
The SDO, however, voiced concern that Nagaland was certainly witnessing climate change, indicated by erratic weather behavior.
“It is not necessarily about the weather being colder or becoming hotter. Climate change basically brings about unstable weather conditions,” Lochumi pointed out.
According to her, change in weather pattern is being experienced in Nagaland with December becoming colder during winter while temperature shoots up in January. “Going by our statistical distribution of weather pattern, January should be colder than December,” she said.
Fluctuating weather conditions is an indicator of the impact of global warming and climate change.
In 2014, December, Lochumi revealed that the minimum temperature hovered around 5-6° Celsius in Dimapur. It suddenly shot up to a minimum of 8-10° Celsius in January 2015. “This is an indication of climate change,” she pointed out.
The North East region usually witnesses minimum temperatures in double digits, ranging between 10° Celsius and 20° Celsius during December.
Hailstorm affect power lines
Morung Express New Dimapur | January 9 Saturday afternoon’s hailstorm disrupted power supply to a major portion of Dimapur as trees fell over power lines while several others went faulty. According to a power department official, feeders (power line) emerging from four major sub-stations – Nagarjan, Metha, Burma Camp and Industrial Estate were affected during the storm disrupting supply to several localities.
The worst affected was Metha sub-station as the main 33 Kv line from Nagarjan sub-station was snapped by a falling tree halting supply to localities in the main town area. Airport and Purana Bazaar feeders from Burma Camp went faulty affecting supply to a number of localities within town and beyond the Dhansiri River. An 11Kv line from Industrial Estate was also affected disrupting supply to the Lengrijan area, which was later restored.
The official said that department personnel were on the job to reactivate the damaged lines, while adding that a few were rectified by evening. The high tension 33Kv line from Nagarjan was restored around 9:00 pm. Work was ongoing to restore the Airport and Purana Bazaar feeders.
