NEW DELHI:
South India
experienced its second hottest April on record in terms of maximum temperatures while the average mean temperature in east and northeast India was the highest for the month in 51 years,
IMD
data reveals, attesting to the torridly hot conditions that these regions have been witnessing over the past few weeks.
The last few days have seen heat records fall in three of India’s biggest cities — Bengaluru, Kolkata and Mumbai.
The South as a whole recorded an average maximum temperature of nearly 37.2 degrees Celsius during the month — surpassed only by 37.6 degrees C logged in April 2016 in records going back to 1901 — IMD’s monthly temperature data reveals. Bengaluru witnessed its hottest ever April. The metro, once famous as the Garden City, recorded 13 extremely hot days, including six in a row, during the month.
Eastern India has been baking in April heat during a prolonged spell of extreme weather. As per IMD’s data, the average mean temperature in the region (east and NE, as per IMD classification) during the month was the highest since 1973, with the average night temperatures the highest ever in April. Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar have been reeling under extreme heat. On Tuesday, Kolkata (Dum Dum) logged 43 degrees C, its highest temperature in April and fourth highest for any month. It was 43 degrees C at Kolkata’s Alipore as well, less than a degree from the all-time high of 43.9 recorded almost a century ago and only the second time ever that Kolkata’s April temperature had touched the 43-degree mark.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the country this season, the
mercury
crossed the 47-degree mark on Tuesday — Kalaikunda in (Bengal) logged 47.2 degrees C, a whopping 10.4 degrees above normal, and Baharagora in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand touched 47.1 degrees C. At least three spots in the region — Kalaikunda, Panagarh (Bengal) and Balasore (Odisha) — reported temperatures 10 degrees higher than normal.
Odisha, which falls under central India in IMD’s classification, has been reeling under a heat wave for 16 straight days. “This is the highest number of consecutive days of heat wave in Odisha in 10 years. The record for the longest heat wave spell in the state is 26 days, reported in 1998,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, chief of IMD.
“The heat waves in several parts of the country weren’t entirely unexpected. El Nino continues to persist in the Pacific and under this condition, south India and adjoining areas are known to witness above normal temperatures in April. A more immediate reason for the heat in eastern India is the presence of an anti-cyclonic circulation in central Bay of Bengal, which is preventing sea breeze from entering the region. As a result, the land has become dry and hot,” Mohapatra said.
Another wind circulation, an anti-cyclone over western Arabian Sea, has been pumping up heat along the western coast, particularly the Konkan belt, over the past few days. On Monday, the temperature at Mumbai’s Santa Cruz crossed 39 degrees for the second time this month, making it the second hottest April day in the city in 10 years.
IMD expects the heat wave to continue in eastern India till May 2 and for at least another five days in the South.
— With inputs from Niranjan Kaggere in Bengaluru, Sumati Yengkhom in Kolkata
