Met dept predicts hotter summer

Could worsen drinking water problem

Summer this year will be hotter than usual, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) first-ever outlook for the season.

According to the outlook, temperature in all the 36 sub-divisions in the country would be higher than normal, with the parched northwest expected to be at least one degree higher than what summer temperatures usually are.

Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan are in the northwest.

In central India, too, temperatures would be high because of a string El Nino.

It is a band of warm ocean water that develops over central and east-central equatorial Pacific.

In 2014 and 2015, it caused not only hotter summers and drier monsoons but also a warmer winter. Records show that 2015 was the third warmest year recorded since 1901.

The IMD predictions also showed that the seasonal average maximum temperature between April and June this year, in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, and Kerala, as well as the plains of West Bengal, Sikkim and even in the North-Eastern states are expected to be 0.5 to one degree more than average.

Hot weather is also expected to prevail over Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The Met department now plans to issue heat-wave alerts and other warnings after every five days, which would be valid for the next 15 days.

A warmer-than-usual summer might aggravate the water crisis and lead to further drop in reservoirs’ levels, which are already at 27 per cent of their full capacity.

A long, dry and intense summer will also deteriorate the drinking water situation in many parts of the country.