Heat waves till June, warns Met dept

: With above average temperatures already being felt in several regions across the country, the weather department on Monday predicted one to three degrees’ rise in temperature this year.

Warning of heat waves across several regions, especially Rajasthan, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) last week said it had already recorded heat waves in some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, western Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.

According to the IMD, the core heat wave regions for April, May and June will be Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Telangana and the meteorological subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, Madhya Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

“The temperature recorded on Monday showed a rise of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius in most parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and northeastern states, in some parts of Rajasthan, and in one or two pockets of east Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Konkan (Karnataka) and Goa and Marathwada (Maharashtra),” the weather department said. In the past 24 hours to Monday evening, maximum temperatures were recorded at least 10 notches above the season’s average at Srinagar in J&K, Manali in Himachal Pradesh, several regions of western Rajasthan and isolated parts of Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam and Arunchal Pradesh.

However, the IMD has predicted respite from heat wave conditions, especially in Rajasthan, from April 5.

“There is a possibility of rise in relative humidity over northwest India from April 5, 2018; as a result, heat wave would abate over west Rajasthan,” it said.

The IMD said that warmer than average temperatures are expected to prevail in most of the subdivisions with maximum anomalies in subdivisions from northwest India and north India.

IANS

NEW DELHI