New Delhi: Amid the intense heatwave being witnesses across the states/Union Territories in north west and central India since the last two weeks, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that such hotter spells of intense heatwave will continue for the next 48 hours while there would be a decline after June 1.
According to the IMD, heatwave will continue to persist over a dozen of states across the north and central India while the South West Monsoon has made an early arrival in Kerala and the north-eastern states on Thursday.
Heat wave to severe heat wave conditions are likely to prevail in some parts of Bihar, in isolated pockets over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Odisha and Jharkhand on May 31, the weather body said.
According to IMD, for June 1, heat wave conditions are likely to persist in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar.
For the last few days, Delhi and Rajasthan had been recording temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday, Mungeshpur in North West Delhi recorded 52.9 degree Celsius which broke all the previous records. However, Union Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju said that it is unlikely that such spike could be recorded and there could be an error in sensor system while the IMD said it examining it.
As per the private weather agency Skymet, "The base observatory at Safdarjung, representative of Delhi records, observed the maximum temperature of 46.8°C on Wednesday (May 29). This temperature is the highest in the last 79 years and about 6 degrees Celsius above the normal."
"In the recent past, Safdarjung recorded high of 46 degrees Celsius on 27 May 2020. This was the highest in the last two decades or so. The highest ever temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius, in the month of May was recorded on 29 May 1944", it added.