Severe heat wave conditions prevailed in several parts of the country today with Bengaluru recording the highest ever maximum temperature for April in 85 years at 39.2 degree Celsius, while Titlagarh in Odisha continued to sizzle at 46 degrees.
Maximum temperatures across several cities in southern and eastern India crossed the 40 degrees mark. However, mercury in central and northern parts of the country continued to hover around normal levels.
Weatherman said severe heat wave conditions will prevail over the next three days in Telangana, where 49 people have so far died due to sunstroke. Khammam, Ramagundam and Nalgonda recorded the highest maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius in the state.
Summer vacations were today announced by the Odisha government as the state continued to sizzled under a blistering heat-wave. The maximum in Titlagarh, which yesterday recorded a high of 48.5 degrees Celsius, was 46 degrees Celsius, followed by Bhawani Patna 45.7 and Bolangir 45.5 degrees Celsius.
Delhi, which witnessed overcast skies in the morning, had a maximum of 39 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 20.4 degrees Celsius.
Excessive heat conditions in the national capital also forced the organisers to postpone the National Tribal Carnival scheduled to be held from Friday and slated to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bengaluru recorded the highest-ever maximumtemperature of 39.2 degree Celsius for the month of April. "It has broken the previous all-time record of 38.3 degree, recorded on April 30, 1931," Meteorological Regional Observatory Director-in-Charge Geeta Agnihotri said.
"This time Bengaluru is hotter than Delhi. Its temperature is in the range of 37 degree Celsius, and we (Bengaluru) have been recording 38 degrees for the last four to five days," she said.
For the last couple of days, she said, Bengaluru has been recording maximum temperature of 3-4 degrees above normal.
Giving reasons for Karnataka experiencing sizzling heat, Agnihotri said it is due to very strong El Nino conditions recorded in 2015 in the subcontinent and absence of convective activity.
Uttar Pradesh witnessed dry weather conditions with Basti again recording the highest temperature at 43 degrees Celsius.
Temperatures were, however, markedly below normal in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura and appreciably below normal in some parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Saurashtra and Kutch.
The maximum temperatures of Punjab and Haryana hovered
close to normal levels.
Union Territory of Chandigarh had a high of 37.8 degrees. Hisar was the hottest place in Haryana, recording the maximum at 40.2 degrees. In Punjab, the maximum was recorded in the industrial town of Ludhiana at 38.6 degrees.
Extreme heat wave conditions abated in parts of Rajasthan that received light rains in the last 24 hours. The maximum temperatures across the state came down by a few notches with Kota being the hottest at 43.5 degrees.
Phalodi town in Jodhpur recorded the maximum temperature at 43 degrees. Sriganganagar, Jaisalmer, Churu, Jaipur and Pilani recorded respective maximums at 42.5, 42.3, 41.5, 40.6 and 39.6 degrees.
The weatherman said light rains occurred at isolated places in the state including Churu, Karauli, Bharatpur, Alwar and Nagaur.
