IMD warns temperatures expected to rise above normal this year

February 28, 2017 21:06

India should prepare for a harsh summer as heat wave conditions are expected to intensify in the next few months, the weather department has warned.

Northwest India will be the worst-affected, with average temperatures expected to be 1 degree Celsius above normal between March and May. The rest of the country will also experience a warmer summer, according to the seasonal forecast released on Tuesday by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

Heat wave conditions are likely to impact Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and parts of Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

The weather department also reported that 2016 was the warmest year on record in India since 1901, with temperatures hovering almost 1 degree Celsius above the 1961-90 mean. The trend continued into the new year as temperatures rose 0.67 degrees Celsius above normal in January. The data is consistent with the rise of global mean temperatures.

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