The last year of the century also began hot. The switch from spring to summer jumped the gun by 15 days with Delhi experiencing its hottest April of this century. The entire northwest and central India was reeling under a heat wave in 1999. Some places in Rajasthan were baking at 48 degrees. Even peninsular India has been caught in this heat trap, with many cities recording abnormally high temperatures.
Public perceptions tend to veer towards the latter but weather diviners are sceptical.
Human memory in most cases is too short to remember long-term temperature changes, and one is biased towards the most recent experiences. Again, there are no straight answers. Primarily because of the complexity of climate behaviour but partly also because of the lack of doggedness on the part of Indian scientists to crack it. A 1985 analysis of temperature variations between 1901 and 1982 suggests that the annual mean temperatures for the country as a whole has risen by a significant 0.4 degrees Celsius over the last century. This is in line with the 0.5 degree Celsius rise in the average global temperatures this century.