With the unrelenting heat wave claiming more than 800 lives during the last one week, the India Meteorology Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued “red box” warnings for Odisha, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. While more than 500 people died in Andhra Pradesh, 210 people succumbed to torrid heatwave in Telangana.
The “red box” warning by IMD refers to high chances of heatstroke, dehydration and fatality with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius, worsened by a constant dry wind. According to IMD, the country has not witnessed such intense heat conditions in the last one decade. Angul in Odisha recorded the highest temperature of 47 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. As per the IMD forecast on Tuesday, heatwave will continue for the next four to five days.
The condition of heatwave has worsened due to hot westerly winds blowing from Pakistan through north India reaching up to central India. This condition is expected to continue for another two days. However, another hot spell is expected to follow soon. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi are among other States, which have been the worst hit.
Bamrauli in Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest temperature of 46 degrees Celsius while in Delhi the temperature reached 45 degrees Celsius, which is the hottest for this period in the past few years. Normal life was affected in parts of Rajasthan. Kota was the hottest in the State, recording a maximum temperature of 45.8° C followed by Jaipur, which sizzled at 44.7 degrees Celsius. These States are not likely to get any significant relief during the week.
According to scientists in IMD, this hot spell has been triggered by an abrupt end to pre-monsoon showers and absence of accompanying storms. While a developing cyclonic weather pattern in Arabian Sea fizzled out two weeks ago, depressions or rain-bearing systems in Bay of Bengal has already reached the States in northwest.
At this juncture, the weather pattern from Rajasthan to Andhra Pradesh is now uninterrupted and clear, said the IMD experts. This situation is called dew point when the amount of moisture in air is the lowest. Since sun tends to heat dry air more rapidly than moist air, these hot conditions prevail. As per the classification of IMD, a heatwave is said to occur when temperature is at least 5 degrees Celsius above normal. If it is 7 degrees Celsius above normal, then it is said to be severe heatwave.