Pariyaram is a gram panchayat in Taliparamba taluk of Kannur district. It lies on the national highway, and the bus from Kannur takes 45 minutes or so to reach it. On that road the monsoon sets the schedule for several months of the year. Kannur district receives around 3,438 mm of rain annually, according to the Central Ground Water Board’s 2013 district booklet. The south-west monsoon, from June to September, brings 70 percent of it. The north-east monsoon supplies the remaining 30 percent. January to May is considerably drier.
Before the Bus Leaves
A weather Pariyaram reading taken before leaving for Kannur or Taliparamba covers the hours of the journey. MeteoFlow, a platform built by meteorologists and data scientists, publishes a current-conditions page for Pariyaram that its description says is updated every 15 minutes. The page carries a feels-like temperature beside the air temperature. Several readings bear on a monsoon trip:
- Rainfall in the hours of the journey
- Visibility, which drops in heavy rain
- Wind gusts
- The feels-like temperature
Pariyaram’s grama panchayat consists of two villages, Pariyaram and Kuttiyeri, and Kuttiyeri also appears among the places listed near Pariyaram, along with Taliparamba, Payyannur, and Cherukunnu.
Journeys to Medical Colleges
Pariyaram is known across the Malabar region for its medical institutions. The Government Medical College, Kannur, long known as Pariyaram Medical College, stands in the neighbouring Kadannappally-Panapuzha panchayat. It serves Kannur and Kasaragod districts and parts of Kozhikode and Wayanad. The Government Ayurveda Medical College and the Government Dental College are in the Pariyaram area itself. Some of these journeys begin in the eastern hills, where rainfall generally runs heavier than on the coast. The weather at the start can differ from the weather at Pariyaram.
Cloud and Humidity
Sunshine is at its lowest from June to August, when the sky is cloudy. It is at its highest from January to March, at more than 9.1 hours a day. Relative humidity is highest in the south-west monsoon season, at 77 to 88 percent across the district. It is higher in the morning than in the evening. In humid weather the feels-like reading can run several degrees above the air temperature. Mean monthly maximum temperatures in the district range from 28.4 to 36.9 °C, with April and May the warmest months. Wind speeds in the district are low, between 2.1 and 3.3 km per hour on average. They are higher from March to June than from September to December.
When the Rains Arrive Late
Taliparamba, the town beside Pariyaram, is among the water-scarce locations of Kannur district, and its water level is lower in April than in November. Dug wells in the midland region dry up when the monsoon is delayed or the summer showers fail. Laterite, the predominant soil of the district, recharges quickly and drains just as quickly.
Takeaways
Kannur district receives most of its rain between June and September. A bus ride from Kannur to Pariyaram in those months can run through heavy rain, and the reading for Pariyaram covers rainfall, visibility, gusts, and the feels-like temperature.
