Delhi to Get Showers on Tuesday, 'Yellow' Alert for Northwest India Over Western Disturbance

After a whole month of scorching heat, Delhi is likely to receive showers on Tuesday. The India Meteorological Department has issued a yellow warning for Northwest India over western disturbances, even as the major heatwave spell subsided across most parts of the country. The Met said the national capital was likely to receive rainfall on May 3, accompanied by strong winds. Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab have been put on alert, it added.

“The heatwave in Odisha and Bengal was over on April 30, as we predicted. Strong winds will be there in the next two to three days. We are also giving a yellow warning to Northwest India as there is a western disturbance. Delhi is likely to experience rain mainly on May 3. Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab are on yellow alert and strong winds will be there tomorrow and rain may occur,” senior IMD scientist RK Jenamani told news agency ANI.

He was further quoted as saying western disturbance was “very active” and the wind pattern could be seen in Delhi, Lucknow and Jaipur. East winds will also be strong and temperature will not rise for the next six to seven days, Jenamani added.

But, while the heatwave lasted, it claimed 25 lives due to heat stroke this year in Maharashtra. This is the most in six years. Over 374 cases of heat stroke were recorded to the health department in March and April, according to data from the health department.

Vidarbha has the largest number of deaths from heat stroke (15), followed by six in Marathwada and four in Jalgaon in north Maharashtra, said a report in the Times of India. It further said Nagpur has recorded 11 deaths, Akola has reported three, and Amravati has reported one. Jalna has reported two deaths in Marathwada, while Aurangabad, Hingoli, Osmanabad, and Parbhani have each reported one death. The Nagpur division has the most cases of heat stroke, with 295 cases documented.

Heat stroke is a serious heat-related emergency that occurs when the body’s internal temperature becomes uncontrollable due to heat exposure. In the preceding two years, the state had not reported any cases of heat stroke. In the year 2019, nine people died.

A fresh western disturbance provided much-needed respite from the oppressive heat in northwest India on Sunday but parts of central India and west Rajasthan continued to reel under a scorching heatwave, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday. The fresh western disturbance led to rainfall in south Haryana and east Rajasthan on Sunday afternoon, providing relief from the blistering heat in the region. There is no prediction of a heatwave in most parts of the country for the next five days, senior IMD scientist R K Jenamani said.

“Barring some parts of west Rajasthan and the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, no place in the country is likely to see a heatwave in the next five days,” he said. Parts of west Rajasthan recorded a heatwave on Sunday too, with the mercury settling at 47.1 degrees Celsius in Bikaner, 46.9 degrees Celsius in Ganganagar, 46.8 degrees Celsius in Barmer and 46.6 degrees Celsius in Phalodi.

After being parched by a searing heatwave for six successive days, overcast skies and a light breeze brought much-needed relief to the people of coastal Odisha on Sunday even as temperatures were high in the western region of the state, the meteorological office said. The maximum temperature fell by around 2-4 degrees in a few places and was below normal in several towns, according to the Met office. Fifteen weather stations, as compared to 21 the previous day, recorded a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius or more, the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre said. Bolangir is still boiling as the district headquarters recorded 44.9 degrees C, the highest in the state, and Titilagarh town logged 43.5. The mercury level was 43 degrees C each in Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district and Subarnapur town, a bulletin said. The temperature dropped by three notches each below average to settle at 34 degrees C in the capital, 34.2 in Cuttack and 33 in Balasore, the weather office said.

The maximum temperature in Delhi on Sunday settled at 40.5 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average, as the national capital continued to reel under heatwave conditions, according to the IMD. The minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 25.8 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average, the IMD said. Relative humidity oscillated between 62 per cent to 36 per cent. The weatherman has forecast partly cloudy skies in Delhi for Monday with the possibility of a dust storm and thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds with a speed of 40-50 kmph. Heatwave conditions are expected to continue over Delhi and adjacent regions for the next three days. Dust storms or thunderstorms are expected at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi between May 2 and May 4, an IMD bulletin said.

Peak power shortage rose swiftly this week from single digit of 5.24 GW on Monday to touch double digit of 10.77 GW on Thursday showing affects of various factors like low coal stocks at generation plants, heatwave and other issues on deepening electricity crisis. The latest data of national grid operator, Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) showed that peak power shortage was just 2.64GW on Sunday which shot up to 5.24 GW on Monday, 8.22 GW on Tuesday, 10.29 GW on Wednesday and further to 10.77 GW on Thursday. The data also showed that the peak shortage came down slightly to 8.12GW on Friday despite peak power demand met or the highest supply touching an all-time high of 207.11GW on April 29, 2022. Interestingly, amid intensifying heatwave across the country which would not relent for a few more days as per the weather department, the peak power supply touched record levels thrice in this week. The peak power supply touched record 201.65GW on Tuesday. This had surpassed last year’s maximum demand met of 200.53 GW on July 7, 2021.

Amid rising temperature and heatwave across the country, the Centre has urged states/UTs to review their health facility preparedness for availability of adequate quantities of essential medicines and all necessary equipment while ensuring sufficient drinking water and continued functioning of cooling appliances in critical areas. In a letter to the states/UTs on Saturday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan requested them to disseminate the guideline document National Action Plan on Heat Related Illnesses’ to all districts for effective management of cases of heatwave. The letter mentions that from March 1, daily surveillance on heat-related illnesses has been initiated under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) in all states and districts. Please ensure that these daily surveillance reports are shared with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), it said.

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