Skymet weather

Hot spices that will cool you down in summer

Have you ever wondered why people in the hottest places on earth eat hot and spicy foods with hot chili peppers and spices even in the summers when most will naturally gravitate towards cool and refreshing foods like ice cream, cucumbers, and watermelons?? There is a reason, and it's actually pretty smart. Spicy foods make you sweat, which in turn helps you cool down faster. It's as simple as that! Scientists call the phenomenon "gustatory facial sweating," because indeed you usually start sweating in the face first.

Well, sweating releases heat and cools you down for sure but how long does this effect last and is it worth it or not, we will find out. Spices have long been used in Ancient China and India to balance the human body during the extremes of the seasons. According to traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda), it is important to use cooling spices during the summer months to avoid excess internal heat in the body. Here’s a list of some easily available spices that will promise to keep your summers cool.

Ginger- While it may seem that this spice increases the heat and most of you may stop having ginger tea in the summers, fresh ginger actually has a cooling post-digestive effect on the body. Fresh ginger tea is also one of the best spices for keeping our digestion regular. Try drinking some fresh ginger tea throughout the day and in between the meals and see the effect. You may notice that your appetite is healthier, and your ability to successfully digest foods increases.

Turmeric - One of the most healing spices on the planet and widely used in India, turmeric has a cooling effect during the summer. It also has health-boosting properties for the human body. An anti-inflammatory, liver cleanser, anti-allergen, blood purifier, cholesterol balancer, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial is a must have in your spice box. Turmeric is one of the best spices for avoiding toxic inflammation in the body, a condition that often peaks in summer time. It also stimulates the digestive process, boosts immunity and is great for cooling off over-heated summer skin that may have been caused due to over exposure to heat and harmful UV rays. Avoid consuming packed turmeric which may only be rich in color and less effective in healing. Go for fresh turmeric (dull yellow colored and looks like ginger) for best results.

Cumin seeds - In small amounts, cumin seeds and ground powder are cooling. They also act as a powerful anti-carminative and digestive aid. Cumin is a savory spice that can be used in grain dishes, vegetable stir-fry’s and soups. Even better is to roast them a little, crush them and add to your chilled glass of lassi or bowl of raita. If you’re lazy to do so, next time just purchase a pack of jeera lassi from the store instead of the normal plain lassi. The former will cool you much more.

Mint - Whether peppermint or spearmint, mint is more than just a bad breath remedy, it’s also an excellent cooling summer spice. Best when picked fresh from your nearest mandi, mint makes a heat-busting addition to a summer lemonade, fresh fruit salad or the homemade dhaniya and pudina chutney. You can even grow peppermint at home to avoid the hassle of buying it every time.

IPL WEATHER KOLKATA, 24th of April

Kolkata Knight Riders VS Mumbai Indians
Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Match starts at 8PM

Defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Mumbai Indians in the 33rd cricket T20 match of the IPL tournament at Eden Gardens Kolkata and the good news for the sports crazed city is that they will see clouds and rain disappearing by the time match starts.

Kolkata will have rain during the morning session but as afternoon progresses, chances of rain will reduce. During the day, sky in Kolkata will be partly cloudy but during evening hours and late night clouds will not be seen.

The reason for rain in Kolkata during the day is that a wind discontinuity is prevailing in the lower level at around 1500 meters. Rise in temperatures during the day leads to thunder development during the period of wind discontinuity and the as the temperature falls towards the night, thunder development reduces too.

Wind conditions in Kolkata will be southwesterly to southerly and they will blow with light to moderate speed. Winds are coming from the Bay of Bengal so humidity level will be in eighties leading to players perspiring more, however as both teams belong to coastal areas, this should not pose as a problem to either teams.

 

Photograph by Suraj100

 

 

Weather in major airports in India on 25th April 2013

Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi
No Delays- Delhi airport will have a partly cloudy sky. Northwesterly winds will be prevalent in the capital. Day and night temperatures will see a rise during the next 24 hours.

Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Amritsar
No Delays- The airport in Amritsar will witness a partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature will increase. Northwesterly winds will blow over Amritsar.

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow
No Delays- Sky over Lucknow airport will be mainly clear. Rise in temperatures both during the day and night will continue. Westerly winds will prevail in Lucknow.

Lal Bahadur Shashtri International Airport, Varanasi
No Delays- Mainly clear sky is expected in Varanasi and rise in maximum temperature will continue. Winds will come from west direction.

Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Airport, Patna
No Delays- Patna airport continues to have clouds but rain is not expected. Winds will blow from west throughout the day tomorrow while northerly winds will be experienced during morning hours.

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata
No delays- Kolkata airport will have a partly cloudy sky. There could be rain during afternoon hours. Temperatures will rise and winds would blow from southwest and south.

Bangalore Airport
No delays – Partly cloudy sky will be witnessed and rain/thunder showers are expected in Bangalore during evening hours. Southeasterly winds will prevail in Bangalore and temperatures are not expected to rise.

 

Photograph by Subhashish Panigrahi

NWW winds prevalent in northwest India; wind dis-continuity goes on in south and east

Northwesterly to westerly winds are expected to prevail over north, central and east India during the next two days. Rain will occur at one or two places in east Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Rain will also occur in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa in the east and Chhattisgarh and north coastal Andhra Pradesh in central Peninsula. Northeastern parts will also have rain during the next 24 hours and an increase is possible thereafter.

Winds are now coming in from land in the form of northwesterly to westerlies in north and northwest India. These winds possess the characteristics to increase temperatures. So a rise in both day and night temperatures in Delhi and other areas of the plains would be witnessed during the next two days. The below average day temperature will become normal during this period and could again shoot up to latter thirties thereafter.

Similar rise in temperatures is expected in central and east India as well. These regions are also getting interrupted northwesterly to westerly winds that are coming from land. 2 to 3 degrees rise is possible during the period in both these regions. The below average day temperatures will take at least two more days to become normal. Night temperatures will also increase as northerly winds are missing from the region most of time during the morning and evening.

The wind discontinuity that runs from Bihar up to south Chhattisgarh and neighboring Andhra Pradesh could continue to give rain at one or two places over Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa in the east and over Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh in peninsular region.

The areas affected by wind discontinuity would have had winds blowing in from two opposite directions thus colliding leading them to slow down creating an instability in the atmosphere. Such instability is prone to thunder development towards afternoon hours.

A trough of low pressure area runs from central Rajasthan to south Tamil Nadu across west Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Maharashtra. One or two places in west Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat could get rain during the next 24 hours.

The weather in northeast will continue to have partly cloudy skies and rain could occur at a few places during the next two days. The present cyclonic circulation over Meghalaya will continue to persist. An increase in rain is foreseen due to the arrival of another cyclonic circulation from west direction thereafter.

Earthquake hits Afghanistan; tremors felt in north India

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan-Pakistan border at around 2:55pm on Wednesday. The epicenter of the earthquake was 250km northwest of Jalalabad in Afghanistan. It had a depth of 40 km.

People rushed out of their residences and offices in Srinagar in Kashmir while buildings in the national capital Delhi also reported to be swayed. Earthquake tremors were also felt in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. No loss to life or property has been reported from the affected areas as yet

Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range that lies near the juncture of the Eurasian-Indian tectonic plates. Two earthquakes that triggered landslides killed at least 75 people in June last year. The latest tremors came a week after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake centred in Iran affected thousands of people in remote southeastern Pakistan and killed 41 people.

Pakistan in the region was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005, that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

 

Map by Sommerkom

Predict weather with a cup of coffee

The weather in April can be wishy-washy.  One day it’s sunny, warm and beautiful, the next day rain and thunderstorms may break the day.  No wonder the month of April is termed as the month of dust storms and pre monsoon showers by weathermen. Pop up showers and thunderstorms during April often ruin your outdoor plans of eating chaat and momos with friends and family.. But not anymore, what if we told you, you could predict the weather using your morning cup of coffee? i.e. incase you don’t find access to our forecasts..

Yes, it could be possible. Your morning cup of coffee may help you predict the coming rain. It’s a trick used by backpackers that can come in handy if you’re planning to go traveling to the outdoor without any internet or phone access that can tell you about the day’s weather. Pour a cup of coffee and carefully watch the bubbles. Try this,

Pour your coffee into a cup and then stare at the bubbles.

If the bubbles amass in the center, you’re in a high-pressure system, which is making the coffee’s surface convex or higher in the middle. Since bubbles are mostly air, they migrate to the highest point. So it’s going to be a beautiful day!

If the bubbles move to the edge of the cup rather quickly, it’s a good sign again. Expect clear skies for the next 12 hours.

But if the bubbles form a ring around the sides of the mug, you’re in a low-pressure system, making the surface concave. You can then expect rain in 12 hours and you can start packing your rain gear!

If the bubbles slowly move to the edge of the cup, you may get a bit of weather, but it should be clearing in a few hours.

Note: Your cup of coffee has to be strong and brewed, to have enough oil to work. The coffee mug too must have straight sides.

If you've managed to make a cup without bubbles, flop a spoonful of coffee back into your cup and make some more bubbles.

Well, the theory behind this trick is that high pressure will push the bubbles to the edge, and high pressure indicates a period of sunny, calm weather. Low pressure won't move the bubbles and low pressure systems typically bring unsettled weather.

How true is it?

Most believe it isn’t. They argue that there are so many variables when making coffee that the above experiment can’t entirely be true. Temperature of water, type of coffee, concentration of coffee etc., when combined with the high pressure, bubbles will push to the edge, so it can be illogical to link the position of the bubbles to the weather at all.

Either way, it is an interesting trick that you might like to try on your next outdoor trek! And even if it doesn’t work, you can just use it as an excuse to have another steaming cup of strong, brewed coffee..

5 Interesting things at home you can recycle

Your home is a treasure trove of items that can be reused or recycled. When you change your perspective on throwing things away you’ll automatically find yourself looking at everyday objects in a different light. Here are some things you can very easily re cycle at home.

Aluminum Foil                                          

Place foil behind plants in the shade to reflect light on them.

Place a vessel with water and food over a foil platter in a sunny spot. Keep some foil at the back of the vessel as well and you’ll have your own solar cooker.

Spread out the foil lining from used bags; make a foil tray and dry tomatoes, meat, and herbs on it for a delicious summer treat.

Use leftover foil to pack any item that needs waterproofing, such as photos, old films, etc.

Old Keys

Decorative keys can be shined up and used as pendants, earrings and belt danglers.  You can even use a set of keys to create metal belts.

If you have too many keys, donate or sell them to a metal unit who can recycle and use them in manufacturing other products.

Jeans

Create bags, aprons, skirts, patchwork quilts and such items with old jeans. They cost nothing and look very fashionable.

Donate old jeans at NGOs for other needy kids to use it.

Hair clips

Wash, dry and use soft plastic clips to bind creepers to support poles in your garden.

Use hair bobbles to hold back curtains

Wine corks

Use them to cork bottles of homemade sauces, oils and preserves.

Cut wine corks into circles, color them and thread them, interspersed with other beads, into necklaces and belts.

Prop up garden pots with wine corks to aid drainage.

Bumpy rides with global warming

Airline passengers may be face more frequent turbulence as the planet warms, found the latest research. Clear air turbulence, the type of turbulence that comes when wind changes direction in the middle of a clear blue sky, can sneak up on a pilot.

“Climate change is increasing the destabilizing influence,” said researcher Paul Williams of the University in the journal Nature Climate Change in the UK.

It is quite surprising to see how a topic of such concern has never been given too much attention. The reason probably being that it’s an area of research that crosses two very different fields - those who study climate and others who study aviation weather forecasting. Williams is one of the very few people who decided to research on this highly ignored and less researched topic and thus came out with such concerning observations.

To test this, a climate model was run that looked at the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean, which currently sees about 600 flights per day. Particular changes in the stratosphere's jet stream that could lead to more areas of turbulence were then looked at. One of the biggest signs of more turbulence is more wind shear, which is where fast-moving air is roaring right alongside a layer of slower moving air. That sort of situation creates unstable air and turbulence.

Turbulence is a problem not because it's uncomfortable, but it causes injuries. The thing about clear air turbulence is that the pilot can't see it. So when a plane hits it, passengers and crew might not be strapped in or they may be walking about the cabin. That makes it pretty easy to suffer broken bones and even fractured skulls.

Long-term climate models and even daily aviation weather models can't predict the turbulence itself, but they can predict the conditions that are known to be associated with clear air turbulence, explained John Knox, a clear air turbulence forecast researcher at the University of Georgia.

So if you thought a sudden downdraft from large thunderstorms or gust fronts or squall lines posed the greatest danger to your flight, you were wrong! Rapidly increasing global warming could definitely make your next flight a literal roller-coaster ride..

Photo by ABC News.

IPL WEATHER DELHI, 23rd of April

Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab
Ferozshah Kotla Stadium
Match starts at 8pm

The titans of north India, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab would fight for consistency and  supremacy when they'll lock horns at 8pm at the historical Firozshah Kotla ground here in Delhi in the 32nd match of Cricket T20 IPL tournament. Both teams would find the weather conditions conducive as they're both based in northern India

Temperature in Delhi will be around 30 degrees at the start of the match and will go down to mid-twenties by the time the league match will be over. The humidity level will be in twenties.

Wind conditions during the match will be northerly providing comfort as they are originating from the Western Himalayan region. Wind speed will be below 5 kmph. Sky will be mainly clear during the match.

Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab both are standing low in the IPL points table and they will be eager to mend their way back in the standings.

 

Photograph by Bill william compton

Weather in major airports in India on 24th April 2013

Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi
No Delays- Clouds will return in Delhi airport during the next 24 hour. Winds will blow from northwest direction. Day and night temperatures in Delhi will rise.

Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Amritsar
No Delays- Partly cloudy sky will continue in Amritsar airport tomorrow. There is possibility of thundery development in Amritsar. Day temperature will rise but in spite of rise in minimum temperatures morning will be comfortable.

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow
No Delays- Lucknow airport will have a clear sky and sunny day will be witnessed tomorrow. Day and night temperatures will rise further. Winds would blow from northwest and west direction.

Lal Bahadur Shashtri International Airport, Varanasi
No Delays- Clouds in Varanasi will disappear and a mainly clear sky will prevail during the next 24 hours. Day temperature will rise significantly and the night temperature will also see an increase. Winds would blow from west direction

Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Airport, Patna
No Delays- Patna will have some clouds and chances of rain still persist. Day temperature will see a jump while night temperature will also rise up to 2 degrees. Winds will blow from west direction.

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata
No delays- Chances of rain during evening or night persist in Kolkata airport. Temperatures are not expected to change. Winds will blow from southwest direction.

Bangalore Airport
No delays – Partly cloudy sky will be witnessed and rain is expected in Bangalore tonight. Southeasterly winds will prevail in Bangalore and no significant rise is expected in temperatures.

 

Photograph by vm2827

Rise in mercury expected in Delhi; rain to reduce over east, central and NE

Temperatures in Delhi will rise during the next two days. Day temperatures will also rise in central and east India and rain will reduce during the period. Wind conditions are about to change in the entire country wherein land winds are expected to prevail from northwest plains up to east and central India. Rain will reduce over northeastern states.

Wind conditions are expected to change in north India from northwest plains to Gangetic plains during the next two days. Relatively cool moist southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal that were responsible for the fall in day temperatures below the average will recede and northwesterly to westerly winds will prevail during the next two days. As these winds would come in from land they will push the temperatures up by 2 to 3 degrees. Temperatures in Delhi will also follow the same trend.

Northerly winds over Delhi will also be absent so the minimum temperatures will also start rising to increase uneasiness during morning hours. But it will take at least two days to become so.

In east, rain is expected to decrease in east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Sikkim during the next two days. The cyclonic circulation over south Bihar will weaken. The cyclonic circulation over Meghalaya would also weaken therefore rain will lessen over Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and other states.

The trough of low pressure area from Bihar to south Tamil Nadu will also weaken gradually during the next two days but till then rain at one or two places will continue to be witnessed over southeast Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh (Rayalaseema), south interior Karnataka and Kerala.

A trough extends from south Pakistan to Madhya Maharashtra and there is possibility of rain at one or two places in Madhya Maharashtra, an area experiencing drought.

IPL WEATHER BANGALORE, 23rd of April

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Pune Warriors India
M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Match starts at 4pm

Partly cloudy sky and southeasterly winds will prevail over M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore during the cricket IPL 2013 league match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors India. The local side Royal Challengers Bangalore will try to maintain their unbeaten home run in IPL T20 game under favourable weather conditions against a side based in Western Ghats.

Southeasterly winds are expected to blow at around 8 to 10 kmph during the match. Both Bangalore and Pune are different in wind conditions. Bangalore tends to get easterly to southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal wherein Pune is used to westerly to northwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea.

Temperature in Bangalore during the match will be just above 30 degrees and by the end of the match it will drop at least by 3 degrees. Humidity level at the start of the match will be 40 % while it will be approximately 60 % when the match is over. The maximum temperature and minimum temperature is expected to be around 33 and 22 degrees respectively on the day.

 

Photograph by Shashtrix







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