‘Heatwave to go on in western India’
JAIPUR/AHMEDABAD/MUMBAI: Severe heatwave conditions are likely to continue in western parts of India over the next few days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Tuesday, when the maximum temperatures crossed 41 degrees Celsius in Rajasthan’s Barmer and Ahmedabad, and 39.6 degrees Celsius in Mumbai.
According to IMD, the severe heatwave-like conditions are likely to aggravate in the next few days before the mercury dips next week. “The heatwave conditions are because of anticyclonic activity above the western India in absence of enough moisture-laden winds from Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean and dry winds blowing from the middle-east (West Asia),” IMD said in its bulletin, adding this is the season’s first heatwave.
Heatwave is a weather condition when daily temperature rises to a minimum 40 degrees Celsius and there is a departure of 4.5 to 6.4 degrees Celsius from normal temperature.
Eight cities of Rajasthan recorded at least 40 degrees Celsius temperature on Tuesday for first time this summer, IMD said. Barmer was the hottest with a maximum temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius.
The weather department warned of heatwave in the next two to three days in different parts of Rajasthan, especially in border districts — Barmer and Jaisalmer. It also predicted severe heatwave conditions in eastern and western Rajasthan from Wednesday.
IMD Jaipur director Radhey Shyam Sharma said the temperature generally touches 40 degrees Celsius mark around the last week of March. “The reason behind such high temperatures is the anti-cyclonic circulation developed above south-west Rajasthan and adjoining areas; such condition will persist for next two-three days. The state will further witness a rise in temperature by 1-2 degree Celsius,” Sharma said.
He added though the temperature was high, the extreme temperature record of March has not been broken.
In Gujarat, IMD said severe heatwave conditions prevailed in Kutch and at isolated pockets in the north Gujarat districts of Ahmedabad and Deesa and in Saurashtra-Kutch districts such as Rajkot, Porbandar and Kutch. “In Ahmedabad, the maximum temperature is likely to touch 41 degrees Celsius on March 16 (Wednesday) and minimum temperature is likely to remain 22 degrees Celsius,” it said. In Maharashtra, IMD has issued a ‘yellow alert’ (heat wave conditions in isolated parts) for Wednesday. It has predicted that the maximum temperature in Mumbai will be around 40 degrees Celsius over the next two days.