A woman covers her head for protection against the scorching sun on a hot summer day, in Kolkata, on May 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The searing April temperatures were the highest over eastern and northeastern (E&NE) India and the second highest over south India since 1901, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a press conference on Wednesday.
These record-breaking temperatures were due to the combined effect of a prevailing El Nino and a weather system — called an “anticyclone” — that blocked moisture-laden sea breeze from the Bay of Bengal, which in other years brought rainfall and eased temperatures, said M. Mohapatra, Director-General, IMD.
Average temperatures over E&NE India were 28.1 degrees Celsius and max temperatures at 34 degrees Celsius, both nearly or two degrees above what’s typical for the month.
Some places also witnessed anomalous increases in temperature; for instance, Panagarh in West Bengal recorded 45.6 degrees Celsius, which was 10 degrees above normal and Kalaikunda, also in West Bengal, registered 47.2 degrees Celsius – 10.4 degrees above normal.
Also read: Warming of Indian Ocean to accelerate: IITM study
In southern peninsular India, average temperatures were as high as 37.25 degrees Celsius or about 1.35 degrees above normal. This was only slightly below the 37.57 degrees Celsius recorded in 2016 – the all-time high since 1901.
Odisha saw as many as 18 heatwave days and West Bengal 16 while Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala saw eight, seven and five days respectively. India’s 36 meteorological subdivisions (as defined by the IMD for weather and climate-based analysis) cumulatively see 71 heatwave days on average during April. This April, they saw 118 – the third highest since 2010. April 2022 saw 198 heatwave days and April 2010 saw 337 such days.
In contrast, north-western India did not see any heatwave day on account of regular incursions of “western disturbances” which are spells of rain that originate from Central Asia.
The hot conditions are likely to persist through most of May over most of India and this time, northwestern States/Union Territories such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are also expected to register more than their usual quota of heatwaves, the agency predicted.
