The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday said the maximum temperatures and the heatwave intensity experienced over many parts of India could be marginally lower than usual during some days of May. This May, the Met office has forecast intense thunderstorms leading to overcast sky conditions, rainfall, squally winds and lightning all of which could help ease the intense heat and keep the maximum temperatures under check. Thunderstorms are highly localised events triggering either hailstorms, short but intense rainfall, lightning, thunder or squally winds - all of which alter the heated up atmosphere. " Due to moisture incursion both from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, southern peninsular India will receive rainfall. There is an approaching western disturbance, which will affect northwest, north and eastern India till May 7. Thunderstorms will cause normal to above rainfall over all these regions and on some days the temperatures would fall," Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general, IMD, said in New Delhi during the forecast release for May on Wednesday. With rainfall likely to lash many parts of Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and adjoining Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal, north Odisha and Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, these areas could escape the prolonged intense heat this May. “Post a thunderstorm event, the temperature drops by 4 - 5 degrees Celsius, which could mean that these regions would experience a comparatively less intense heat during May," he explained. Thunderstorms could contribute and push the country's monthly rainfall average to 'above' normal (except northwestern India) this May. But that does not mean hot conditions will remain absent in May. The IMD said hot conditions and above normal heatwave episodes ( 1 -3 days being normal) would emerge in May. This is also because summer, over India, peaks during May with the most intense and prolonged spells of heatwaves over the core heatwave zone being experienced during this month. " Above normal temperatures are likely across India, except Kerala, Tamil Nadu, coastal and southern Karnataka, Jharkhand, eastern Bihar and West Bengal during May. Above normal heatwave days, with spells lasting 2 - 7 days will affect Punjab, Haryana, west Rajasthan, central and east Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southern Uttar Pradesh during May," stated the May forecast. Further, the IMD said in its forecast that above normal minimum temperatures will be recorded in May across the country. The night temperatures are likely to remain exceptionally above normal over coast Maharashtra, Gujarat and western Rajasthan. Every year around mid-May, the southwest monsoon winds arrive over the Andaman Sea. This year, a normal onset and advance of the southwest monsoon into mainland India was highly possible, Mohapatra said. April this year remained the fourth warmest (in terms of maximum temperature) and fifth warmest (in terms of minimum temperatures) for northwest India. The region remained among the driest over the country last month with the average monthly rainfall recorded being deficient by 35.8 per cent.
