Mangaluru in Coastal Karnataka was the hottest place in the country on Wednesday with a maximum temperature of 38.8 degrees Celsius, a trend that mostly continued into Thursday when India Meteorological Department (IMD) said mercury ruled in the range of 37-39 degrees Celsius over many parts of Goa and Coastal Karnataka.
Similar conditions were reported from isolated places of Saurashtra, Kutch and Vidarbha, while maximum temperatures were in the range of 35-37 degrees Celsius over parts of Vidarbha and East Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Konkan, Saurashtra, Kutch, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, Rayalaseema and West Madhya Pradesh.
Heat wave conditions
Heat wave conditions may occur over parts of South Konkan, Goa and Coastal Karnataka Friday as well. But satellite pictures at 3.30 pm on Thursday showed clouds from visiting western disturbance settling over the Western Himalayas and adjoining Nepal and filtering into the plains over Uttar Pradesh across Moradabad, Bareilly, Aligarh, Farrukhabad, Sitapur and Kanpur. Light rains were reported from Aligarh, Farrukhabad and Jaipur in neighbouring East Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, a prominent and growingly substantial streak of clouds covered parts of the South Peninsula and extended East-North-East from across Coastal and North Interior Karnataka into Telangana, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Coastal Odisha and West Bengal, Mizoram and Tripura. The clouding may have helped cap the mercury over Mangaluru later on Thursday.
Other cities benefit
Other cities benefiting from the cloud cover included Madikeri, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Davangere, Tumakuru, Bengaluru, Bellari, Guntakal, Anantapur, Kurnool, Tirupati, Vellore, Chennai, Gudur, Nandyala, Guntur, Vijayawada, Eluru, Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam, Brahmapur, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore and Digha.
Meanwhile, the visiting cooler western disturbance moved further to the East and lifted its underbelly from over Karnataka to Bhopal and neighbourhood in Madhya Pradesh by late Thursday afternoon. An associated cyclonic circulation lay over North-West Madhya Pradesh. They would combine to bring isolated light rainfall, thunderstorms and lightning over Uttarakhand, South Uttar Pradesh, North-East Rajasthan and North Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
Fresh western disturbance
A similar pattern will unfold from Thursday to Saturday over Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, plains of West Bengal Odisha; and until Monday over the hills West Bengal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. A fresh western disturbance likely to cause isolated/scattered rainfall and thunderstorms over the hills of North-West India from Sunday night to Tuesday. An extended outlook from Tuesday next to Thursday said isolated to scattered light rainfall is likely over Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, hills of West Bengal and Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.