Severe heatwave hits southern West Bengal, with temperatures reaching 42.8 degrees Celsius. More districts to be affected, while north Bengal expects rain. Several districts in southern West Bengal are reeling under severe heatwave conditions, with the maximum day temperature touching 42.8 degrees Celsius at Panagarh in West Burdwan district, eight degrees above normal, the highest recorded in the state on Tuesday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that more districts in south Bengal are likely to come under the grip of heatwave over the next three to four days. However, most districts in north Bengal are expected to receive rain and thundershower over the next few days.
Three districts in north Bengal – Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar – are going to polls on April 19 in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The IMD has issued a forecast of light to moderate rain in the three districts on the polling day.
“Mainly dry westerly to north westerly wind at lower levels are likely to prevail over the region and due to strong solar insolation, heatwave condition and hot and discomfort weather are likely to occur over districts in south Bengal till April 20,” the IMD said. Heatwave conditions were also recorded in Midnapore (41.4 degrees Celsius) and Magra in Hooghly (40 degrees Celsius). Several other weather stations in districts such as Bankura, Sriniketan, Kalaikunda, Burdwan, Asansol, Purulia, Barrackpore and Suri recorded temperatures above the 40 degrees Celsius mark.
The day temperature in Kolkata was recorded at 39.4 degrees Celsius, 3.8 degrees Celsius above normal. The maximum temperature in some weather stations near Kolkata, such as Salt Lake and Dum Dum, also crossed 40 degrees Celsius, even though the IMD didn’t declare it as a heatwave.
“Heatwave conditions are likely to prevail in one or two places of several districts in south Bengal such as East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Birbhum, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas over the next few days,” an IMD official said.