"In the absence of winter rains, levels of humidity also remained low and in turn dense fog that is peculiar phenomena of this part of the year also remained absent. All these factors coupled together kept the day temperatures high. Moreover, continuous approach of Western Disturbances blocked the flow of icy cold northwesterly winds, leading to further rise in mercury," Skymet said in its analysis posted on its website.
It said that further as the country gradually progresses towards the pre-monsoon season, weather models are not indicating of much pre-monsoon activities over Northwest India that include rain and thundershowers, dust storm or hail storm.
"We expect temperatures to remain above normal throughout the season, leading to frequent heatwave conditions across several parts of the country," Skymet said.
The heatwave prone areas include Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana.
Meanwhile, the core heatwave region includes Telangana, Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra.
Since the last few years, Skymet said that every successive year has turned out be warmer than the previous one.
Earlier, 2015 was the warmest year, which was then followed by 2016 that was the even hotter and was the warmest year on record. Now, 2017 is also following the trend. In fact, January 2017 was warmest since 1901.
Earlier, this week, the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that temperatures across the country is expected to remain up to one degree above normal in the next three months while it is going to be worst in North India with temperatures remaining over one degree above normal.
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