Northwest India and adjoining components of central India are predicted to see “more intense and frequent heatwave” situations in April, India Meteorological Department Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra mentioned on Wednesday.
“We are expecting that the temperature will be higher than normal in entire northwest India and adjoining central India, starting with Gujarat, Rajasthan and up to east Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he mentioned at a digital occasion on “Building Climate Resilience for the Most Heat Vulnerable”.
The IMD had earlier predicted that April can be “more severe” than March and the temperatures can be increased than regular, Mohapatra mentioned.
“The frequency of intense heatwave situations can be increased in April as in comparison with March. And, we anticipate the heatwave situations to proceed until April 15 in some components,” he added.
The IMD in a press release mentioned the continuing heatwave spell began primarily over west Rajasthan and the adjoining areas of Gujarat and west Madhya Pradesh on March 27.
It prolonged to east Rajasthan, east Madhya Pradesh, south Haryana, Delhi and southern components of Uttar Pradesh by March 29.
“This spell has been persevering with for an extended interval and has already accomplished greater than every week. Besides, a persistent heatwave is being noticed over northern plains, central India and components of the western Himalayan area with the utmost temperature within the vary of 25 to 33 levels Celsius at increased ridges. Heatwave knowledge for April (2017-2021) reveals this kind of longer spell just isn’t uncommon,” it mentioned.
Eight to 12 days lengthy of heatwave spells have been noticed over components of the western Himalayan area overlaying over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Punjab and components of Gujarat in April 2017 and 2019. Himachal Pradesh and Jammu in April 2017, the IMD mentioned.
India recorded its warmest March in 122 years with a extreme heatwave scorching giant swathes of the nation through the month.
The climate division attributed the warmth to the dearth of rainfall as a result of absence of energetic western disturbances over north India and any main system over south India.
The nation as an entire recorded a rainfall of 8.9 mm, which was 71 per cent lower than its lengthy interval common rainfall of 30.4 mm. It was additionally the third-lowest precipitation in March since 1901 after 7.2 mm in 1909 and eight.7 mm in 1908.
For the plains, a “heatwave” is asserted when the utmost temperature is over 40 levels Celsius and at the very least 4.5 notches above regular.
A extreme heatwave is asserted if the departure from regular temperature is greater than 6.4 notches, in keeping with the IMD.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
