A senior Ahmedabad-based officer told Express Newsline that no record was available for more than the last few years as the Surat office did not send the weather data regularly. If one were to know the weather details from 1991 to say 1996 there is simply no data, he added.

The local office sends whatever data it collects to the Ahmedabad office while destroying the data in their possession after a month. Earlier, even the fire brigade of the Surat Municipal Corporation was collecting the temperature data but was prevented from doing so by the meteorology department when it was found that there was variation in temperatures.

Incidently, even the Surat Municipal Corporation collects rain data but the difference between their figures and that of the Pilot Balloon Observatory differ as much as by an inch. While the rainguage should be kept on the earth -- which the observatory claims it does -- the SMC staff keeps it on the terrace of the three-storey building.

But for all this, the Ahmedabad meteorological office seems to have data for all over Gujarat for at least the current century. The highest temperature ever-recorded (available data) in Surat is 45.6 degrees C on three occasions; June 10, 1901; April 15, 1952 and April 1, 1956.

The city recorded 42.8 degrees C temperature on Monday while the minimum temperature was 28.2 degrees C. On Monday the mercury climbed to 43.2 degrees C, while the minimum temperature was 29 degrees C. The unexpected rise in mercury has taken its toll on Surtis and on the vehicular traffic.

Cold drink joints are doing a roaring business, especially when the evenings draw close. Suddenly, the number of persons making it to the city bridges in the night has gone up. Usually, the rush is highest on Sunday nights but for the last couple of days people having been forced to remain indoors or in office throughout the day are trooping down in the night. Ice-cream vendors are making a killing and so are the gola vendors.