Bengaluru was once a popular escape for summer-weary dwellers of sweltering cities and towns. Those days are long gone, of course. The city, today, is only slightly better than the more notoriously metros whose residents once sought refuge here.A latest research by meteorologists has found that the ‘hotter months’ in the city are increasing by the year.Upon comparing Bengaluru’s weather in 2015 and 2016, it was shown that there was a temperature increase of at least five degree Celsius over the one-year period — and the graph has been on the rise. The weather pattern was collected from two weather stations; Jayanagar and HSR Layout.Rajeev Jha, who runs Yuktix Technologies (which developed and deployed the weather stations), says the first half of March this year was about 5 degrees Celsius hotter compared with last year.“So, while earlier you could say the summer started by the end of March, this year, it started by the end of February. Our summer usually ends with May – so the season is now that much longer,” he says.Both maximum and minimum temperatures have increased, he says. This means, much higher electricity use at night for fans and air conditioners. It also means that concrete buildings and surfaces don’t get a chance to cool down enough before getting heated up the next day, which is why it feels like it’s getting hotter, he adds.As per their observation at the Jayanagar station, the first half of March was a lot hotter compared with the second half. The last five days of the temperatures actually came closer together. The spread in average is a good deal of three to four degrees centigrade. In case of HSR layout, the increase was around 5 to 6 degrees more than the previous year.The Bangalore Citizen Weather Network has around 15 live stations in Bengaluru and all are independent devices connected to the cloud.These devices are made by Yuktix Technologies, and owned by individuals and institutions in the city, such as the Public Affairs Centre, Indian Institute of Science, GKVK and Indian Institute of Human Settlements — all of which have stations within the network. While they own the stations, the data collected is made public and put online.According to the India Meteorological Department, March has been one of the hottest months, with Bengaluru reaching a record 37 degree Celsius this year, beating the previous record of 36.7 degree Celsius.Meteorologists fear that the highest temperature ever recorded in Bengaluru is 38.6, but if the trend continues, then the city may even touch the 40-degree mark.