The northwest plains are sweltering under intense heat, which is expected to continue till Saturday. Thereafter moist winds, dust storm and rain will calm things down a little. This is the longest spell of hot weather in northwest plains. Maximum temperatures have been sustaining for more than five days now.
Amritsar in Punjab which was observing day temperatures around 29°C during the latter part of April, is now boiling at 41.8°C, five notches above normal. Similarly, above normal temperatures were also recorded in Jammu, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Hisar, Karnal, Agra, Jaipur and Kota. Heat wave continues to remain strong in western Rajasthan, where Barmer, Churu and Ganganagar witnessed temperatures in excess of 44°C.
The temperature in Lucknow in central Uttar Pradesh was no different as maximum settled four notches above normal at 43.3°C. Allahabad and Varanasi recorded a maximum temperature of 45.1°C and 44.2°C respectively.
Conditions improved slightly in Patna in Bihar compared to what it was on Tuesday. Cut off of dry and hot winds and reach of moist winds from the Bay of Bengal under the influence of a cyclonic circulation over West Bengal lead to the conditions improving in the city. According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, respite for these regions is expected from tomorrow as moist winds will be able to absorb the extra heat.
The weather in Central India remained mainly dry over Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh but it is expected that conditions will be favourable for some rain due to friction between land and sea winds over Chhattisgarh and parts of east Madhya Pradesh during the next 48 hours.
In southern peninsula, pre-monsoon rain would continue to occur in Kerala and south interior Kartnaka. Some rain will also be recorded in Tamil Nadu.
Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and some of the other northeastern states will be witnessing increase in rainfall during the next 48 hours. A cyclonic circulation over Assam will be facilitating southerly to southwesterly winds from the Bay of Bengal to the region.
