The national weather agency predicted on Monday that vast swathes of the country might experience warmer than average temperatures and above-normal heat wave conditions during the next three months. It also said that India’s core heat wave zone, which stretches from the northwestern states across the Indo-Gangetic plains into Bengal, is likely to experience “above-normal heat wave conditions”. The core heat wave zone, defined through historical patterns of temperatures, extends across Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and parts of Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh. “We typically see 5 to 7 spells of heat waves scattered across this core heat wave zone, but this time we may see a few more, although it is difficult to say how many,” Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, a senior meteorologist at the IMD, told The Telegraph. The IMD declares a heat wave when maximum temperatures exceed the normal by 4.6°C and persist for two consecutive days.

Source: The Telegraph April 01, 2019 22:18 UTC