Warmer than normal, but cooler than north: South India braces itself for a hot summer

The Indian Meteorological Department has said that a heat wave is expected to hit 16 states in the country due to various reasons.
Warmer than normal, but cooler than north: South India braces itself for a hot summer
Warmer than normal, but cooler than north: South India braces itself for a hot summer
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This summer, mercury levels across the country are set to soar with several regions expecting heat waves. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the pre-monsoon months this year, i.e. March, April and May, will be warmer than normal and the heat wave is expected to hit 16 states due to various reasons.

The average temperature will be at least 1 degree Celcius higher than what was seen previous summers in most regions across India. In certain regions of the south, the temperature rise could be 0.5 degree.

The Met office said regions likely to be warmer by at least 1 degree are Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, west and east Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, west and east Uttar Pradesh, west and east Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha (Maharashtra), Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh.

South warmer

Temperature increase lesser than 0.5 degree will be witnessed in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, north and south interior Karnataka, Rayalaseema, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

"The weather forecast focuses on big regions and not states. For instance, Kerala is a sub-division, Karnataka has three sub-divisions including coastal, north interior and south interior Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are one sub-division. All three regions are expected to see temperatures above normal. However, it will be cooler as compared to the north and also as compared to last year, as these regions may receive pre-monsoon showers," DS Pai, lead monsoon forecaster, IMD said.

Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are likely to be hotter since they are hit by heat waves, he added.

He also added that temperatures within these sub-divisions could fluctuate depending on the topography of the area.

Chennai

The Met Department in Chennai has predicted a hotter summer for the city in 2018.

Based on data collected over 30 years, their records peg the mean maximum temperatures for the months of March, April, May and June at 32.7, 34.4, 37.1 and 37 degrees respectively.

“We are expecting temperatures higher by 0.5 to 1 degree,” Balachandar, Met Department Director, told TNM.

“We cannot, however, make predictions for individual days. So while the temperatures might peak drastically on certain days, from the climate model of calculation, we are expecting a rise of a degree on average,” Balachandar said.

Hyderabad

Residents of Hyderabad need to brace themselves for a scorching summer. Met Department Director YK Reddy said that on individual days, the temperature could touch 45 degrees too.

Like Balachandar, however, he emphasises that they cannot make such predictions for individual days of the season. “We are expecting the mean maximum temperature to rise by one degree this summer,” he said.

The mean maximum temperatures for Hyderabad for the months of March, April, May and June are 35.7, 38.2, 39.2 and 34.6 degrees respectively.

Bengaluru

Bengalurueans are already feeling the heat with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees Celsius. But officials say what they were witnessing was just the transition period from winter to summer and that the mercury is expected to gradually increase even more.

"Usually, the end of February is like this and actual summer is from March to April, where we are expecting the temperature to rise gradually from now. While 34 degrees Celsius is the normal during summers, it can go up to 38 or 39 this time," Srinivas Reddy, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) told Bangalore Mirror.

Heat waves in north and central India

"The heat wave will hit us, for sure, especially the core heat zone that includes Delhi and other states. The temperature variations will differ from region to region," IMD Director General Dr KJ Ramesh told IANS.

Heat wave occurs when mercury shoots five degrees above normal.

The regions falling under the core heat wave zone are Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Telangana, and meteorological subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, central Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

The IMD predicts about 52% probability of above-normal maximum temperature in the core heat wave zone.

The remaining subdivisions are likely to experience warmer summer variations between 0.5 and 1 degree, the IMD said.

With IANS inputs

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