New Delhi: India is bracing for an extreme summer as large parts of the country recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius today. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) released a list of cities that recorded the highest temperatures on Monday, with the top-ranking city broiling at 43 degrees Celsius.
The first two spots in the weather office’s list today were claimed by cities in West Bengal. Murshidabad recorded a scorching 43 degrees while Bankura boiled at 40 degrees. Delhi, which is experiencing a second consecutive day of heat wave conditions, ranked fifth on the list and shared the same maximum temperature of 40 degrees with five other cities: Bankura, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Rajasthan’s Churu, Chandigarh and Andhra’s Vijaywada. Gurugram was not far behind with a maximum temperature of 39 degrees Celsius.
The IMD has forecasted ‘cloudy weather and light rain on Wednesday’ that may provide some relief from the heat in Delhi. Heat wave-like conditions have been predicted in parts of east India over the next four days and the northwest region of the country over the next two days. Maharashtra will see a 2-3 degree rise in its maximum temperature over the next three days, according to the IMD. This is after 13 people died of sunstroke at the Maharashtra Bhushan award event held on Sunday.
Other areas that observed heat-wave-like conditions include Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Most parts of Haryana and Punjab today had maximum temperatures settling above 40 degrees. The mercury settled at 41.5 degrees in Hisar while in Punjab, Bathinda recorded a maximum temperature of 41.6 degrees Celsius. The IMD had said that Bihar and Gangetic West Bengal may see ‘severe’ heat wave conditions for four days, prompting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to shut all educational institutions in the state till Saturday. Tripura has also said that all government and state-aided schools will be closed from April 18 to 23 due to heat wave-like conditions in the state. Earlier, Odisha had also issued a similar direction.
Above-normal temperatures along with heat wave conditions are expected in most parts of India till May 31, threatening to lower crop production and hurting the efforts to control food costs. Speaking to Bloomberg, climate scientist Kieran Hunt said that there are two reasons why India is experiencing frequent and severe heat waves. ‘Firstly, the Indian government’s definition of a heat wave is fixed, so as background temperatures increase, less and less strong anomalies are required to surpass the heat wave definition threshold. Secondly, it does appear that the weather patterns – high pressure over north India, leading to dry, sunny, clear conditions with weak wind – associated with these anomalies are also increasing in frequency’, she said.
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