A severe heatwave is expected in several parts of northern India, including Punjab and Delhi, from May 18-20, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its forecast on Thursday.
“Severe heatwave conditions are very likely in some parts of west Rajasthan during May 17-20 and in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi during May 18-20,” according to the IMD forecast.
The temperatures are expected to soar to 45 degrees Celsius in the national capital by Saturday.
With mercury likely to cross the 40-degree-Celsius mark from Friday to Monday, parts of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and West Rajasthan are expected to see “severe heatwave conditions”, the Met department stated.
Meanwhile, the existing heatwave alert in Jharkhand and Odisha will continue till Monday and the weather will see a slight improvement after Sunday in West Bengal and Bihar.
On Thursday, Rajasthan recorded the highest temperatures as the mercury in places touched 46 degrees Celsius. Similar weather prevailed in many parts of Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh where the temperatures were 2-3 degrees above normal, reported IMD.
According to the weather department’s data, heatwave days in April were the highest in 15 years in Gangetic West Bengal and nine years in Odisha.
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For the southern part of India, the IMD has predicted rainfall and thunderstorms for certain regions as the southwest monsoon is expected to move into the south Andaman Sea, parts of Bay of Bengal and the Nicobar Islands around Sunday.
Over the coming week, rainfall with thunderstorms have been predicted for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, south Karnataka, and coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.