The news may find few believers in these cold wintry days, but scientists say Kathmandu Valley is actually heating up?in global warming terms. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology says the temperature of the bowl-shaped Valley is increasing by 0.05 percent on average every year. This means we are looking at an average increase of 1 degree Celsius every 20 years. The last week has been pretty chilly, but records of the last two decades show that Kathmandu winters are actually getting just a little less cold. The annual maximum in winter over the last 34 years has ranged between 15.7?22 degree Celsius, but last year the maximum temperature in December?January, the coldest months, soared to 27.4 degrees. The last severe winter in Kathmandu was experienced in 1978 when temperatures fell to ?3.5 degrees.

Not only are the winters getting less cold, the summers are getting hotter, the maximum has also been slowly going up in the summer. Scientists at the Department caution against blaming this entirely on the Greenhouse Effect, they suggest that the growing population pressure on the Valley floor and increasing human activity perhaps play a greater role in our weather patters.