The southern peninsula, central, and northwestern regions of India are preparing for a heatwave that is anticipated to persist for a week, as reported by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday.
A heatwave is officially declared by the Meteorological department when the temperature in a particular area exceeds 40 degrees Celsius in the plains or increases by 4.5 degrees Celsius above the normal levels. The baseline temperatures for these classifications are 37 degrees Celsius for plains and 30 degrees Celsius for coastal and hilly regions.
The IMD indicated that the ongoing heatwave will affect areas including Telangana, Rayalaseema, northern interior Karnataka, Madhya Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Marathwada, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and western Rajasthan until April 20. This marks the first widespread heatwave of the season in the country. The next few days are expected to bring hot and humid conditions to these regions, with daytime temperatures projected to be 4 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than normal, according to the Meteorological department.
Recent reports from central India show that several locations have experienced soaring temperatures. For instance, Akola in Maharashtra recorded a peak of 43.8 degrees Celsius on Monday. To date, April has not seen significant pre-monsoon rainfall in the southern and southwestern parts of India.
Currently, an anticyclone is situated over Maharashtra and neighboring Karnataka, alongside two upper-air cyclonic circulations—one located over Jharkhand-Gangetic West Bengal and the other over southeast Pakistan-Rajasthan.
As a western disturbance approaches, the Meteorological office has forecasted light to moderate rainfall in the far northern regions of India, including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, expected until April 18. Additionally, Himachal Pradesh is anticipated to receive light rain from April 17 to 19. Thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning and strong winds, are predicted for Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh on April 17 and 18.
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