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Heat wave claims 5 more lives

Even as people in several parts of the country experienced a brief respite from the scorching heat today, the plains of north India continued to be in the grip of the severe heat wave that has claimed more than 155 lives in different parts of the country.

Madhya Pradesh reported five more deaths today, taking the toll in the state to 10. Four deaths were reported from the Chhattisgarh region and six in Gwalior district.

In Chambal division, a curfew-like situation prevailed at many places as most people stayed indoors. In Gwalior and Jabalpur divisions, the maximum day temperature recorded was around 44 degrees Celsius while Bhopal and Raipur recorded 43.6 and 43.3 degrees, respectively.

Rains lashed several parts of coastal and northern Orissa in the last 24 hours, bringing the temperature down. The heat wave that swept 18 of the 30 districts in the state has claimed 48 lives so far. Unofficially the toll has been put at more than 60.

According to the Bhubaneswar office of the meteorological department, Champua recorded 112.8mm rain followed by 20.8mm in Talcher. The highest temperature recorded in the state today was in Sambalpur in western Orissa where the mercury touched 45.4 degrees Celsius.

Bihar remained comparatively cool as the mercury plummeted further in almost all major towns of the state except Gaya, where the mercury crossed over 40 degrees Celsius.

Patna and its adjoining areas, which experienced squalls with a velocity of about 85kmph yesterday, saw an appreciable fall in temperatures with the mercury dropping to 36.8 degrees. The state capital had recorded the maximum temperature of 39.4 degrees.

Gaya emerged as the hottest place in the state today with the mercury rising to 43.2 degrees. The westerly winds blowing through the town were cited as the main factor for this rise in temperature.

Ranchi and Jamshedpur recorded 39.4 degrees and 39.8 degrees, respectively.

Some parts of Andhra Pradesh too experienced some respite from the heat in the last 24 hours.

The day's temperature remained above normal in most parts of the state, with Adilabad, Medak and Nizamabad recording the highest temperature of 44 degrees Celsius.

But isolated rain in the coastal areas brought some relief.

The people in Jammu & Kashmir and adjoining areas in Himachal Pradesh also heaved a sigh of relief following widespread rain in the lower reaches and spells of snowfall in the higher reaches of the Himalayas.

According to the Chandigarh weather office, the rain and snow were caused by the western disturbances and upper air system lying over Jammu & Kashmir. Srinagar recorded 3.3mm of rainfall till 8.30am IST today as the day temperature hovered around the normal 20 degrees Celsius. The state's winter capital Jammu was far hotter at 40.7 degrees Celsius, 4 degrees above normal.

People in Punjab and Haryana, however, got no respite from the heat wave, which has already claimed two lives in Amrtisar. The day temperature in Chandigarh rose to 42.6 degrees C today, from yesterday's 42.4 degrees, more than 5 degrees above normal.

Jalandhar reported a high of 41 degrees. Karnal, Ambala, Patiala and Amritsar also continued to reel under 42-44 degrees Celsius temperatures.

Una in Himachal Pradesh was the hottest place in the state recording a temperature of 42.4 degrees, followed by Sundernagar with 38.9 degrees. Simla recorded a high of 29.6 degrees, which was 7.5 degrees above normal.

The Haryana government has announced the closure of all schools in the state for summer vacations from May 10 instead of May 25.

Disclosing this, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the vacation would be for 42 days. Haryana is the second state after Delhi to advance the school summer vacation.

All wheat-procuring agencies in the state have been directed to clear mandis (markets) on priority basis and keep wheat in safe storage.

The state food and supplies minister said the state expects more than 3.8 million tonnes of wheat procurement in the current season for the central pool as the daily arrival is more than 70,000 metric tonnes.

In the North-East, except for Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley, which have been facing a drought for the past four months, most regions are under the prolonged spell of norwester winds, making the last week of April and early May very pleasant.

Guwahati is cool with a maximum temperature of 29 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 21.

Interestingly, Aizawl, which is generally cooler than Guwahati, remained hot this time with the mercury reaching 34.1 degrees celsius. Agartala recorded a maximum of 37.7 degrees.

The unusually long drought in Tripura has forced the government to seek an urgent assistance of Rs500 million from the Centre.

In contrast, most of the water sources in Assam have sprung back to life and already hints of the first wave of flood are coming in from the interiors of Dhemaji and Nalbari districts.

In Delhi, the mercury touched 43.5 degrees Celsius today.

Safdarjang weather bureau director S C Gupta said conditions were unlikely to improve in the capital though there had been some cooling effect in different parts of the country.

Gupta said Delhi was under the direct influence of hot westerly winds from Rajasthan. Normally after four or five days of intense heat, some thunderstorms occur, but this time it hasn't been so as there is very little moisture in the atmosphere.

The Forecast

Heavy rain is likely to fall at isolated places in Assam and Meghalaya in the next 48 hours.

Rain or thundershowers are likely at many places in Assam and Meghalaya, at a few places in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, West Bengal, Sikkim, Orissa, the Bihar plateau, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Tamil Nadu, and at isolated places in the hills of west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, south-east Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, south interior Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep.

Mainly dry weather will prevail over the rest of the country.

                      Temperatures (deg C)

	                Max          Min

Agartala               38(+4)       24
Ahmedabad              42(+1)       27(+2)
Allahabad              43(+2)       29(+3)
Amritsar               42(+5)       23(+4)
Aurangabad             41(+2)       28(+5)
Bangalore              32(-1)       22(+1)
Bareilly               45(+5)       28(+4)
Bhopal                 43(+3)       27(+2)
Bhubaneswar            38           26(-1)
Bombay                 34(+1)       26
Calcutta               35(-1)       27(+1)
Chandigarh             42(+5)       24(+2)
Dehra Dun              40(+5)       21(+1)
Gadag                  39(+2)       22(-1)
Gangtok                23(+1)       15(+2)
Guwahati               28(-3)       22
Hyderabad              42(+3)       28(+2)
Imphal                 31(+2)       19(+1)
Indore                 44(+4)       25(+2)
Jabalpur               45(+5)       30(+7)
Jaipur                 43(+4)       28(+4)
Jodhpur                42(+1)       28(+3)
Kanyakumari            32(-1)       26
Lucknow                43(+3)       28(+4)
Madras                 35(-2)       21
Madurai                33(-3)       26
Mangalore              34(+1)       25
Minicoy                33(+2)       27(+1)
Nagpur                 46(+4)       27
New Delhi              43(+4)       29(+5)
Panjim                 33           27
Patna                  40           25
Poona                  41(+4)       23(+2)
Port Blair             31           24
Raipur                 44(+2)       31(+3)
Rajkot                 42(+2)       24(+1)
Satna                  46(+5)       30(+5)
Shillong               24           14(-1)
Simla                  28(+6)       20(+6)
Srinagar               22           12(+2)
Tiruchirapalli         35(-2)       27(+1)
Trivandrum             33(+1)       26(+1)
Varanasi               43(+2)       27(+2)
Visakhapatnam          37(+3)       28(+1)

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