Heat wave conditions being reported from parts of East India may aggravate during the rest of the week, forecasts indicated.
International forecasters suspect that East India, adjoining Central India and northern half of the East Coast, may be the areas recording maximum heat during the period.
During the 24 hours ending on Monday morning, the highest maximum temperature of 46.3 deg Celsius in the country was reported from Titlagarh in Odisha, an India Met Department update said.
The Met said that heat wave conditions were reported from Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the North-West and Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during the period under reference.
Heat wave Similar conditions prevailed in isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh as well.
The US National Centre for Environment Prediction is of the view that the core heating will return to Rajasthan and neighbourhood (North-West India) from April 26.
Thundershowers prevented heat from building up in Jammu, rest of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Rajasthan during the 24 hours ending Monday morning.
Thundershowers also lashed parts of Kerala and Telangana and many places in the North-East of the country in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
Hotter in East The Met agreed with international forecasts that heat wave conditions will stay pronounced to the East of the country and adjoining Central India during the next few days.
The North-West is expected to remain isolated from top heat concurrently due to the arrival of a western disturbance, which may kick up thunderstorms/dust storms in the region. Associated cloud/dust cover will prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the ground in their full intensity, putting a cap on heating of the land.
Water storage In fact, the Met is predicting a fall in maximum temperatures over North-West India by 1-2 deg Celsius during next two days, leading to abatement of heat wave conditions.
Current live storage in the 91 major reservoirs as on April 7 was 37.92 BCM (billion cubic metres) against a total live capacity of 157.80 BCM.
This compared with 55.34 BCM the same day a year ago (April 7, 2015) and 49.44 BCM of normal (average of the last 10 years) storage – or 69 per cent of last year’s storage and 77 percentage of normal storage.