Mercury drops at some places but north still sizzles

The national capital continued to face a heat wave at around 41.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, even as various factors led to a dip in maximum temperatures from two to five degrees in different states.

Churu and Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan were the hottest places in the country at 49.2 degrees, even as the temperature there dropped by two to five degrees on Saturday. In Delhi, Palam area remained the hottest at 44.2 degrees.

"The temperature dropped today (Saturday) in several states, including Delhi, and will remain so for two days. However, the heat wave will still persist in parts of Rajasthan," an official of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

"Heat wave will continue despite a drop in temperature at many places over Vidarbha, few places over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and isolated places in Gujarat," the official said.

A thunderstorm was also predicted at isolated places in Bihar late Saturday.

The weather department predicted heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in coastal areas of Odisha, Gangetic belt of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura.

The weather analysts said that due to upper air cyclonic circulation over west Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana and the cyclone storm 'Roanu', that crossed over to Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal, and unseasonal rain in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, the mercury has dropped slightly.

"In Rajasthan, the temperature has dropped two to five degrees; in western region of Madhya Pradesh two to three degrees; in Gujarat up to two degrees; in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where it rained in some parts, the temperature has dropped from three to four degrees and in the West up to three degrees Celsius," the IMD official said.

Unlike some parts of Uttar Pradesh, the weather department has not predicted rain around the National Capital Region or any other northern state.

--IANS

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