East Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district recorded 47.4 degrees Celsius in April, with many places also setting record temperatures for the month.
Allahabad, Jhansi and Lucknow, also in Uttar Pradesh, had 46.8, 46.2 and 45.1 degrees respectively.
Gurugram in Haryana and Satna in Madhya Pradesh measured their monthly highs at 45.9 and 45.3 respectively.
The Delhi Sports Complex Observatory reported 46.4 degrees Celsius, with Rajasthan’s Ganganagar hitting 46.4, Madhya Pradesh’s Nowgong 46.2 and Maharashtra’s Chandrapur 46.4.
New Delhi experienced its second warmest April in 72 years, with a monthly average high of 40.2 degrees Celsius.
North West India has been seeing warmer than normal temperatures since the last week of March and experts attribute this to the absence of light rain and intermittent thunderstorms that typify this time of year in the absence of active western disturbances.
The IMD issued a four-color “orange” alert warning the population to prepare for this Saturday.
Experts are forecasting partly cloudy skies, light rain and a dust storm with wind speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour for Sunday, which could temporarily relieve the intense heat.
Heatwaves affect health, agriculture and water availability and although deaths from this cause have declined in India over the years, extreme temperatures affect people’s physical and mental well-being.
In the Himalayan regions, one of the main effects is accelerating the melting of glaciers, the main source of water for millions of people.
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