PUNE, May 26: Most parts of the country continued to swelter in the scorching heat today. Temperatures soared above 45 degrees Celsius in North and North-west India, and even as reports of deaths due to the heat wave pour in, meteorological scientists say there will be no immediate respite from the heat in the worst summer of the decade.Dholpur in Rajasthan recorded 49.5 degrees Celsius, the hottest in the country today while western Orissa saw the mercury touching 47 and Delhi 46.1, five degrees above normal.A heat-wave situation prevailed in other parts of the country too, with the death toll in Rajasthan rising to 64. Other states that reported sunstroke-related deaths are Uttar Pradesh (33), Maharashtra (25), Bihar (12) and Tamil Nadu (one).Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, said this year's summer temperature in the country had remained unusually high. ``There are several parameters contributing to the rise intemperature and no specific reasons can be attributed to this anomaly,'' he said.``Pre-monsoon thundershower activity need not happen every year. But this year its total absence in the majority of regions and the subsequent unusual rise in the maximum temperatures are two factors which should be studied in detail,'' he said. Any relation between them or the failure of pre-monsoon rainfall can be derived only after considering all the aspects associated with the phenomenon, he added.However, meteorologists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Pune describe the persistence of heat wave conditions as a normal summer feature. Officials at the Weather Central Observatory in Pune, which prepares the weather forecast for the entire country, said a decrease in temperatures in North and North-west India was expected only after the beginning of rainfall in the affected regions. ``There has been no rainfall reported from North India for the past five days as several areas are under heat waveconditions,'' said D S Desai, Director (Weather Forecast), IMD, adding a reprieve from the intense heat was expected only after 48 hours.Desai said the change in circulation pattern of the cyclonic storm which hit Bangladesh recently played a crucial role in the failure of pre-monsoon thundershower activity over the North India. The weathermen, however, are mincing no words about the perceived influence of the El Nino phenomenon on the high temperatures. Although a normal monsoon has been predicted by the meteorology department this year, the El Nino ghost has made a surprise entry into the Long Range Forecast announced by IMD. The forecast says: ``Although since December 1997, the warming over the Pacific Ocean has been gradually decreasing the El Nino episode is likely to persist during the first half of 1998 monsoon season. This factor would therefore have to be continuously monitored for its concurrent influences over the monsoon rainfall.''
