Most parts of India are likely to witness above-normal temperatures in May, but frequent thunderstorms could help prevent the kind of extreme heat recorded last year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the number of heatwave days this May is expected to be higher than normal — by one to four days — across large parts of the country, particularly in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Gangetic West Bengal.
Additional regions — including parts of Gujarat, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, adjoining Telangana, and north Karnataka — are also expected to experience more heatwave days than usual, Mohapatra added. Under normal conditions, most of the country — excluding the southwest Peninsular region — sees one to three heatwave days in May.
On the rainfall front, most parts of India are likely to receive normal to above-normal rainfall, with the exception of some pockets in northwest, central, and northeast India. Specifically, north India could receive more than 109 per cent of its long-period average rainfall of 64.1 mm.
Mohapatra noted that frequent and intense thunderstorms expected in May would “likely prevent temperatures from rising to the levels seen in May 2024.”
India recorded 72 heatwave days in April 2024, he said, with Rajasthan and Gujarat seeing six to 11 such days, and east Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha reporting four to six. In contrast, east-central India, Maharashtra, and adjoining areas of northern Peninsular India reported one to three heatwave days, slightly below the typical range of two to three.
Meanwhile, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 25.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, which was two notches above the season’s average, according to the IMD.
