No respite from scorching heat in Northwest India till Sunday

The northwestern region will continue to face hot weather till Sunday. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are likely at some places over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and some parts of Uttar Pradesh from Wednesday to 15 June.

Also, warm night conditions are very likely in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and West Rajasthan from Wednesday to Friday.

"Heatwave conditions have been observed on Wednesday over many places in West Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, south Haryana, Delhi and at isolated places over East Rajasthan and south Uttar Pradesh," said an IMD official. Severe heatwave conditions were reported at isolated places over West Rajasthan, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

Also Read | Delhi under heatwave ‘red alert’, rain relief likely after 3 days

However, IMD stated that temperatures have exhibited a slight decrease of up to 2°C over north Haryana, Uttarakhand and northwest Uttar Pradesh, excluding stations like Chandigarh and Patiala from the heatwave. Further, temperatures have risen over the rest of the Northwest India region by about 1°C, taking Ganganagar to 48°C, becoming the highest maximum of the season over the country. Ganganagar’s all-time high is 49.1°C reached in June 2018.

Delhi's temperatures are likely to remain in a similar range of 43.3°C to 45°C until Thursday and may fall gradually from 13 June.

Also Read | Monsoon hits pause after record start—what’s going on?

On Tuesday, in the Northwestern region, the maximum temperatures were in the range of 43-47°C over most places in Rajasthan and in isolated places in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Delhi. They were in the range of 39-43°C in a few places in the Jammu division and Uttar Pradesh. The highest maximum temperature of 47.6°C was reported at Bathinda in Punjab.

Also, the maximum temperature was above normal (> 5.1°C) at many places in Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and isolated places in West Uttar Pradesh, West Rajasthan, and East Rajasthan.

The IMD warned that there is a very high likelihood of developing heat-related illnesses and heat stroke during heatwaves. The agency suggested that vulnerable people should be extremely careful.

Also Read | Greenland and Iceland saw record heat in May. What does that mean for the world?

Meanwhile, IMD has predicted that the monsoon is likely to be in the active phase with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rain at isolated places over south peninsular India, Konkan and Goa from Thursday to 16 June. It has forecast that isolated heavy rainfall is likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala, Mahe, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam, Rayalaseema, Telangana, Karnataka and Lakshadweep during the period.

Also, conditions are likely to be favourable for further advancement of the monsoon over some more parts of Central and adjoining East India around Saturday.

In East & Central India, according to IMD, light or moderate rainfall is expected at some places over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during the next 7 days. Light or moderate rainfall will occur at some places accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds over Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand from Wednesday till 17 June.