HT Digital
GUWAHATi, Mar 1: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has released a severe heatwave alert, predicting higher-than-average temperatures and higher numbers of heatwave days during March to May in India. Higher-than-normal temperatures are anticipated in most parts of the nation, with a few areas of the northeast and peninsular south being excluded.
Prolonged heatwave conditions are likely to result from the absence of significant cooling spells, said IMD senior scientist DS Pai. Extreme heat conditions are expected to intensify in many states, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and north Karnataka.
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This warning follows India having its hottest February in 124 years. India’s average monthly temperature in February was 22.04°C, 1.34°C higher than its long-term mean. The earlier record was 21.99°C in 2016. The average temperature for the day in February was 29.07°C, the second hottest on record, with 2023 being the record holder of the hottest daytime temperatures in February.
Minimum temperatures during nights were also record high, averaging 15.02°C—a new February record. Delhi saw its warmest February night in 74 years, with temperatures of 19.5°C—seven degrees above normal.
The IMD credits this aberrant warmth to the changed behaviour of western disturbances, which usually introduce colder air into north India in winter. In February, there were seven such disturbances—a little higher than the average of five or six—but they rushed by too quickly and were too dry, so they resulted in very little rainfall or snowfall. Because of this, cold waves and dense fog, a normal occurrence during winter, did not figure to any large extent.
For March, the IMD forecasts normal rainfall (83-117% of the long-term average), with above-normal rainfall in most of Peninsular India and southern central India. Other areas can expect normal to below-normal rainfall.
The weather bureau also reported weak La Niña conditions, which are forecasted to weaken further from March to May. While some models point towards warming, El Niño conditions will not be developed from now until that time.
Northwest India is presently under an active western disturbance, and this has brought rains and snow over a widespread area. Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have witnessed heavy rainfall, and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir received 215.4mm of rainfall followed by Batote with 163.7mm.
The spell of wet weather is likely to persist till March 3, with a weaker western disturbance possible in the second week of March. Scattered to fairly widespread rain and snow over the Western Himalayan region is forecast by the IMD from March 8 to 10.
