New Delhi: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday predicted that heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are likely to persist over Northern India including in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab from June 15-19.
For the past four weeks, the parts of North, North-West and regions in the central and south are reeling under the scorching heat with several states/UT's witnessing record breaking temperatures. Even in the hilly states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, several districts have recorded peak temperatures.
Una in Himachal Pradesh recorded the maximum temperature at 43.6 degrees Celsius, while Shimla again breached the 30-degree Celsius mark to register a high of 31 degrees Celsius which is five notches above the season's average on Saturday.
Heatwave in other states
For the National Capital and Uttar Pradesh, the weather body issued orange and red alerts for the next five days as the maximum temperatures hovered in the range of 44-46 degrees Celsius. For Saturday, the maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to hover around 43 degree Celsius while minimum is likely to be at 31 degree Celsius.
Isolated heatwave conditions are also predicted in parts of West Bengal and Bihar on June 15 and in Uttarakhand on June 16 while Jharkhand and Uttarakhand are likely to witness similar conditions on Saturday.
Heat wave conditions are likely to persist over pockets of the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu during June 15-17, Northeast Madhya Pradesh on June 15-16 while North Chhattisgarh on June 15.
"Warm night conditions very likely in isolated pockets of northeast Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi on June 15 and Uttar Pradesh on June 15-16", said IMD in its bulletin.
Highest Heatwave days in this summer and still counting
According to the IMD, the country has experienced highest number of heatwave days in the last decade. As per the data compiled by the weather body, the highest heat wave days have been recorded over Odisha (27) followed by Rajasthan (23), Gangetic West Bengal (21), Haryana (20), Chandigarh (20), Delhi (20) and West Uttar Pradesh (20).
Similarly, states where heatwave are unlikely to make its impact have shown a worrying trend this time as Jammu Kashmir has witnessed 6 days of heatwave, Himachal Pradesh (12) while Uttarakhand (2).
Earlier in this month, according to a report from the Climameter 1.5°C on the record breaking heatwaves in the month of May in India claimed that this "increase in temperature is largely due to human-driven climate change." Terming it as a largely unique event, the report said that "Human driven climate change and natural climate variability both played a role in increasing the heat during the India May 2024 heatwave."
