After country’s hottest March ever, average April max for NW, Central India hits 122-year high

The average maximum temperature over Northwest India is likely to remain above normal in May as well, the IMD said in its forecast for the month issued on Saturday. Other parts of the country are, however, likely to witness normal to below normal maximum temperatures in May.

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The ongoing heatwave conditions over Northwest and Central India are likely to reduce in intensity after May 1 under the influence of a western disturbance, the IMD said.

The average maximum temperature over Northwest India in April has been 35.9 degrees Celsius, 3.35 degrees above the long period average, which is considered the ‘normal’. The average high for April 2022 has been 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record of 35.4 degrees recorded in April 2010.

The average high for this April over Central India has been 37.78 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record of 37.75 degrees recorded in April 1973.

The average night temperature over Northwest India too has been above normal in April — the average minimum was 19.44 degrees Celsius, 1.75 degrees higher that the long period average.

Northwest and Central India saw “continuously scanty rainfall activity” in March and April, IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said. Northwest India recorded a rainfall deficit of around 89% in March and around 83% in April.

The deficit in the pre-monsoon rainfall over Northwest and Central India was because western disturbances were feeble and dry, Dr Mohapatra said. The six western disturbances recorded over North India were mostly feeble, and had moved across the higher Himalayas, according to the IMD. The last three western disturbances brought strong winds to parts of Delhi and dust storms over Rajasthan in April.

A total 146 instances of heatwave or severe heat wave conditions were reported across the country in this April, the most since 2010, when 404 such instances were reported. Parts of the country are currently experiencing heatwave conditions in a spell that began on April 27. The average high in April for the country as a whole was 35.05 degrees Celsius, which was 1.12 degrees above normal, and the fourth highest average April high since 1900. The highest average maximum temperature in April for the country as a whole was recorded at 35.42 degrees Celsius in 2010.

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Northwest India is likely to continue to experience higher than normal maximum temperatures in May as well, Dr Mohapatra said. Northwest India includes Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

Minimum temperatures are also likely to remain above normal in May, and warm night conditions are likely, he said. Parts of Northwest India, including some parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh, could see below normal rainfall in May, the IMD said.

For the country as a whole, rainfall in April was near normal — around 1.3% more than the long period average. This was in contrast with March, which saw a rainfall deficit of 70.7% for the country as a whole. Excess rainfall was recorded in the southern peninsula in April, brought about by cyclonic circulations.

Over the country as a whole, rainfall in May is likely to be above normal, the IMD said.