special desk
Summer had shown such a fierce form 122 years ago. Meteorologists are in awe and they predict that the way the mercury rose in March and heat wave-like situation arose in many places in the country, it may continue in April as well. Regarding Delhi and NCR, the Indian Meteorological Department has predicted that the heat wave may start from Tuesday in the month of April. Such a situation happened in 2017 when the people of the capital had to face the havoc of heat wave for four days.
The India Meteorological Department said on Saturday that March was the hottest in India in 122 years. The Meteorological Department also gave the reason for this unusual heat. According to him, the entire country recorded only 8.9 mm of rainfall, which was 71 per cent less than its long period average of 30.4 mm. March was the third lowest rainfall since 1901, after 7.2 mm in 1909 and 8.7 mm in 1908.
Although heat waves are not a very rare phenomenon in March, they are generally confined to the central parts of India, but most importantly, this year it was experienced up to the foothills of the Himalayas in North-West India. Above-normal temperatures persisted for several days over many parts of west-central and north-west India, leading to two heat waves in March – one starting from March 11 to 21 and the second starting from March 26 and ending the month. continued till
The maximum frequency of heat waves occurs in the month of May and just before the onset of monsoon i.e. early June. But the data shows that heat waves also come in March. India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra said, generally, the central part of the country – Gujarat, Telangana, southern Maharashtra, southern parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh receives heat waves in March. But this time we also saw a serious situation in areas like South Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Even when there was no heat wave at many places, the temperature was much above normal.
According to Mohapatra, above normal maximum temperatures were predicted correctly in many areas of central and northwest India and the prediction of below normal maximum temperatures in many parts of the southern peninsula also came true. However, the prediction of above normal maximum temperatures in North and Northeast India did not come true. This is because of the role of high-pressure cells in the lower and middle troposphere that help move air downward, giving rise to heat waves.
According to the Meteorological Department, the winds were blowing from South Pakistan to South Gujarat including Haryana and Delhi towards North West India, hence heat came from this region in the northern parts and due to this the mercury in the foothills of the Himalayas also climbed. At the same time, Haryana and Delhi were also not untouched. The rainfall activity over the country was very less and this time there was no Western Disturbance, as a result of which cold air could not come and southerly winds were blowing from South Gujarat, South Pakistan towards northern parts.
Meteorological Department data shows that there was very little amount of rainfall activity and minus 72 per cent rainfall deficiency was recorded across the country. The departures were minus 89 per cent in North-West India, minus 59 per cent in East and Northeast India, minus 86 per cent in Central India, while minus 13 per cent in the southern peninsula. However, the Meteorological Department said that in two to four days, hot winds will blow in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.