The Indian Meteorological Department has said that heatwave conditions in large parts of the subcontinent will continue, at least for the next five days.
East, central and northwest India will see heatwave conditions during the next five days, the IMD said in a statement.
Maximum temperatures were 3.1 degree Celsius to 5 degree Celsius above normal in several places, with the mercury hitting as high as 45.1 degree Celsius in Barmer, Rajasthan yesterday.
This marks the fourth spell of extreme heat conditions prevailing across India in the last two months.
To add to the woes, several states are reeling from power shortages and have resorted to load-shedding to manage the higher demand for electricity.
India is one of the most vulnerable countries to extreme weather events triggered by the climate crisis.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, heat extremes have increased in the Indian subcontinent while cold extremes have decreased. And this trend is likely to continue for the coming decades.
Another report by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change had highlighted that if global temperature rise is not contained to 2 degrees Celsius, then heatwaves in India are likely to "last 25 times longer by 2036-2065".
On Tuesday, maximum temperatures reached as high as 44 degree Celsius in many parts of West Rajasthan, Vidharbha, some parts of Madhya Pradesh, interior West Bengal, south-eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and isolated pockets of Jharkhand, Odisha Chattisgarh and Maharashtra. Other regions like Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura also witnessed extreme heat.
On Wednesday, temperatures soared by another 1-3 degree Celsius over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Karnataka, east Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Jammu and Kashmir recorded temperature rise of 3 degree Celsius or more.
i) Heat wave conditions over East, Central & Northwest India during next 5 days:
Vidarbha, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh during next 5 days;
Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, interior Gangetic West Bengal & interior Odisha during 27th-30th April; pic.twitter.com/K2vcnltbLmFor the next five days, significant parts of India will remain under IMD's "yellow alert" where extreme heat will be seen in isolated pockets.
Most parts of northwest India are likely to see temperatures rise up to 2 degree Celsius during the next three days. It will then fall by about 2 degree Celsius thereafter.
The rest of the country is unlikely to see significant changes in maximum temperatures over the next three days, IMD said.
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