The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will be launching a new heat index from May, 2016.
Hindustan Times report that the index will be available on the IMD website, and will be updated every three hours across all weather stations.
The heat index will inform the public about accurate heat conditions of specific areas rather than just the temperature. Apart from this IMD will introduce newer terminologies with corresponding warning colours.
“Many times, when the temperatures are low but humidity is high, we feel hotter than what the temperature projects. And we don’t feel as hot when the temperatures are high and humidity levels are low,” BP Yadav, director general, meteorology, IMD, Delhi told HT.
“The index will give citizens accurate and updated information on the heat conditions specific to their areas,” he added.
The report says that the website will also display health hazard information with corresponding grades of temperature.
For example, a heat index between 40 and 54 with humidity levels less than 70% and more than 70% is termed ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘uncomfortable sultry’. With accompanying yellow and orange colours as warning codes respectively, the health hazards read “heat cramps and heat exhaustion likely”. Similarly, a green colour code with a heat index less than 40 is ‘comfortable’ with no health hazards, while a heat index of more than 54 means ‘highly uncomfortable hot’ (orange) and ‘highly uncomfortable sultry’ (red) indicating a likelihood of heat stroke or sun stroke.
Yadav told HT that the index will be further improved before next summer after consultations with other concerned departments.