Heat wave enters 2nd week with no end in sight

Large swathes of the country reeled under heatwave conditions on Tuesday with Churu in Rajasthan recording a high of 48 degree Celsius, though rains did bring some relief to people in few areas.

High speed dusty winds swept Jammu region, killing a minor and injuring her mother when a tree fell on them, officials said, adding the Vaishnodevi yatra was also briefly halted. Six shops on the shrine route were damaged due to falling of trees, they said.

In Delhi, the mercury touched a high of 41.5 degree Celsius, a notch above normal, but the city is likely to get some respite from the sweltering heat on Eid as the weatherman has forecast partly cloudy sky, possibility of rain and thunderstorm with lightening and gusty winds upto 40 kmph.

Lights rains were experienced in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

In Rajasthan, Churu remained the hottest place with a high of 48 degree Celsius, followed by Kota which sizzled at 47.3 degree Celsius.

Bikaner, Ganganagar, Jaipur and Barmer recorded a maximum of 46.8, 46.5, 45 and 44.9 degree Celsius whereas the day temperature in Ajmer and Jaisalmer was 44.5 and 44 degree Celsius, respectively, the Met department said.

WATCH: Intense heatwave continues to grip national capital

Jammu recorded a high of 40.1 degree Celsius and a low of 25 degree Celsius.

Several trees and electric poles were uprooted and roofs made of tin sheets flew off due to high speed winds in Reasi, Udhampur and Jammu areas, where power and water supplies were disrupted for several hours, officials said.

The Met department has forecast lightning with gusty winds with a speed of 30-40 kilometres per hours in Jammu city with light rains on Wednesday.

Heatwave conditions persisted at many places in Haryana and Punjab too, but light rains at some places brought respite from the scorching weather.

Narnaul in Haryana continued to swelter and the maximum temperature settled at 45.7 degree Celsius, four notches above normal, the Met department said.

Hisar, too, braved a hot day at 44 degree Celsius, up by two degrees, while Bhiwani sizzled at a maximum of 43.6 degree Celsius.

Ambala, which received light showers, registered a maximum of 39.6 degree Celsius.

Chandigarh, which was hit by a dust storm accompanied by high velocity winds and rainfall on the intervening Monday-Tuesday night, recorded a maximum temperature of 38.4 degrees Celsius, one notch below normal.

The city received 11.3 mm of rains.
In Himachal Pradesh, Una was the hottest at 40 degree Celsius whereas Keylong was the coldest at 5.2 degree Celsius.

Pandoh received the highest rain of 39 mm, followed by Mandi 25 mm, Banjar and Jogindernagar 24 mm each, Baijnath 22 mm and Mehre received 21 mm rains, the Met Centre said.

Shimla recorded a high of 28.7 degree Celsius on Tuesday.

The maximum temperature in tourist place Manali was 25.8 degree Celsius, followed by Dalhousie 21.9 and Kufri 21.4 degree Celsius.

People in Gujarat got some respite as the heatwave receded on Tuesday.

Surendranagar in Saurashtra region saw the maximum temperature dropping to 42.8 degree Celsius from the peak of over 45 degree Celsius recorded last week and 44.3 degree Celsius on Monday.

In several parts of the state, the temperatures remained well below 40 degree Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department said there will be no large change in maximum temperatures over the next two days.

According to the IMD forecast, severe heatwave conditions are very likely to continue to prevail over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha on Wednesday and decrease in intensity thereafter.

Heatwave conditions are very likely to continue to prevail over south Haryana till Friday, it said.