Humid Mumbai weather leads to avian menace at airport

The hot and humid weather of Mumbai that has been discomforting for residents so far, has now taken toll on the feathered species as well. To escape the heat and dry weather of the city, the winged guests are now paying unwelcomed visits to the Mumbai airport in order to enjoy thermals and save energy to fly this summer.

Mumbai has been reeling under high day temperatures that were settling above normal during the last fortnight. While average maximum temperature for Mumbai remains confined to lower 30s, it had been showing an upward trend and had been settling 2-3°C above normal. The maximum temperature even touched 40°C on 25^th March.

While residents are opting to stay indoors to escape the city’s soaring temperatures or visit beaches in and around Mumbai, birds are opting for thermals, conveniently available in the open space of airport. Birds use the so called thermals, the convection currents, to stay in the air without any additional power source.

However, this freewheeling avian flight caused quite a stir and sent flight schedules into a flap at the Mumbai airport after the pilot of a landing aircraft reported a bird hit and forced the shutdown of the runway. Moreover, few flights had to be diverted to neighbouring airports of Ahmedabad and Vadodara.

Four IndiGo flights were diverted due to the incident while others to bear the brunt included Air India and Go Air.

What are thermals?

Thermals are spatially and temporally localized parts of the atmosphere created by solar radiation heating the ground, typically moving upwards with a speed in the range of 1–10m/s. The ground heats up the air nearby which rises in columns.