Heatwave likely to abate over Delhi, northwest India from today
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A man shields his face from the heat with a cloth while riding a bicycle, in New Delhi, on Sunday, May 1, 2022. PTI
Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that a heatwave is likely to abate over Delhi and adjoining parts of northwest and central India from today.
The national weather forecasting agency on Sunday said that the heatwave conditions in isolated parts over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, south Uttar Pradesh, Kutch and East Rajasthan are very likely to abate after May 1 to give some respite to residents from the scorching heat.
Meanwhile, the IMD predicted that the heatwave would abate over Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and West Rajasthan from May 3.
Temperatures across interior Maharashtra appreciably reduced on Sunday, on day four of the ongoing heatwave, with nine of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) weather stations in the Vidarbha subdivision (from a total of 10) seeing reductions in the daytime maximum temperature reading.
An official with the IMD's regional forecasting centre in Nagpur said, "There will be a relief for all four meteorological subdivisions in Maharashtra by May 5. A low-pressure area is forming over the south Andaman Sea and adjoining Bay of Bengal. This weather system may bring cooling winds and pre-monsoon showers to parts of India, including Maharashtra, causing temperatures to settle closer to normal or at normal.
India has been reeling under intense heatwave conditions for the past few weeks. Owing to scanty rains, northwest and central India experienced the hottest April in 122 years with average maximum temperatures touching 35.9 degrees Celsius and 37.78 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The northwest region had previously recorded an average maximum temperature of 35.4 degrees Celsius in April 2010, while the previous record for the central region was 37.75 degrees Celsius in 1973.
More than a billion people are at risk of heat-related impacts in the region, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change.