Humidity hurts in 'normal' Celsius

TT, March 29: The "normal" maximum temperature of 34.1 degrees Celsius recorded today felt like 42 degrees outdoors because of high humidity triggered by winds blowing into the city from the direction of the Bay of Bengal.

Unrelentingly hot and humid is what the weather would be for at least 48 hours, with the Celsius tipped to hit 37 degrees by Friday. There is no rain relief on the radar for at least the next four days, the Met office said.

Wednesday's highest Celsius reading matched the normal maximum temperature for this time of the year, but what made the difference was that minimum relative humidity rose to 60 per cent.

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According to the weather portal AccuWeather.com, the RealFeel temperature this afternoon was eight degrees Celsius above the actual temperature, which implies that anyone out in the sun would have felt a heat impact equivalent to 42 degrees.

RealFeel is calculated taking into account temperature, humidity, wind, angle of the sun and other parameters.

"Minimum relative humidity, which denotes moisture levels in the air at daytime, was a high 60 per cent. Last Saturday, the temperature was higher at 35.4 degrees but minimum humidity was lower at 46 per cent," said Habibul Rahman Biswas of the India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

Saba Nizam, who was visiting Victoria Memorial with her children Alhan and Nashra, carried three water bottles. Jonas Grodousch, 21, from Germany was holding a two-litre bottle of mineral water as he stepped out of his Park Street hotel. "It gets this hot in Hamburg, where I come from, only once in three or four years. Even then, humidity is nowhere near this level," he said.

Biswas of IMD said there was a cyclonic circulation in north Bengal and a trough of low pressure stretching from there to northwest Bay of Bengal. "These systems are pulling moisture inland from the sea and that is the reason for the high levels of humidity."

These weather systems caused thundershowers in parts of Bangladesh today, but neither Calcutta nor any other part of Bengal received any such relief.