Heat wave sweeps across country, likely to prevail till May 1

With westerly winds coming from Pakistan, bringing all the heat and darting all the way to Odisha, resulted in a massive heatwave across India with 14 states from west, northwest and central India recording temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius.

New Delhi:The severe heatwave sweeping the country will intensify in the next five days, with the IMD issuing an 'orange' alert for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra, and predicting a rise of another two degrees Celsius in the northwest region. According to an India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast issued on Thursday, a heatwave will persist over northwest and central India during the next five days and over east India during the next three days.

With westerly winds coming from Pakistan, bringing all the heat and darting all the way to Odisha, resulted in a massive heat wave across the country with 14 states from west, northwest and central India recording temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius. Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest maximum temperature of 45.9 degrees Celsius and at least three dozen places recorded maximum temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data showed.

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Heat wave to severe heat wave swept across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and even West Bengal. Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail till at least May 1 in northwest and central India and for the next three days in east India.

Due to a fresh western disturbance, there is a possibility of light or moderate rainfall over the northwest Himalayan region during May 2-4 while the plains of northwest India are likely to receive isolated light rainfall during May 3-4. Dust storm is likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on Friday, IMD warned.

(With agency inputs)