Heatwave conditions are likely to continue over eastern and southern peninsular India over thee next five days, the India Meteorological Department said on Friday.
IMD labelled Gangetic Bengal and Odisha as “red alert” areas where there is a “very high likelihood” of people to be at risk of heat illness and heat stroke. The agency has urged vulnerable people to take “extreme care” amid the heatwave warning for the next five days.
The maximum temperatures are “very likely” to rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius over eastern India over the next two days, the IMD said. Thursday’s maximum temperatures were 4 to 6 degrees above normal in many parts of Bengal.
“Such prolonged heatwave conditions are not unprecedented. We have had prolonged heatwaves in 1998, 2005, 2015. A major factor leading up to such heatwaves is the absence of an anti-cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal,” Mrutyunjaya Mohapatra, director general, IMD, said.