Election time in Jharkhand will be hot, both politically and weather-wise.

Though the four-phase polling will be held in the state after over a month, between May 13 and June 1, the current temperature pattern indicates that it’s going to be really hot during that period.

Many places in the state already witnessed day temperatures of over 40° Celcius in the first week of April and the met office also had to issue heatwave alerts for some districts.

An analysis of temperature recorded in the different towns of Jharkhand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday confirms this.

Seraikela in the southern part of the state so far experienced the maximum day temperature of 43.5°C on Friday, while Jamshedpur had 42°C on Thursday and Chaibasa 41.2°C on Saturday.

In the northern part, Godda witnessed 42.9°C on Thursday and Deoghar 41.3°C that day while Jamtara experienced 40.5°C on Friday and Sahebganj 40.1°C that day.

Though the western part of the state is particularly known for its summer, the region is yet to witness the unbeatable heat till now. Daltonganj recorded 41.0°C on Thursday, the highest till now and Garhwa 40.7°C that day. Though Bokaro is also known as a hot place it is yet to touch the 40° mark with the town recording 39.1°C on Saturday.

The state capital, Ranchi, which was once known as the summer capital of erstwhile Bihar state during the British era also becoming hot these days and the city recorded 38.5°C on Saturday. The met office has, however, assured some relief.

“Some isolated places in the southern and middle part of the state are likely to experience thunderstorms accompanied by rains today (Sunday),” said Abhishek Anand, weather scientist in charge of Ranchi Meteorological Centre, indicating the weather may provide some relief.

But the period during polling is expected to be hot.