B’luru loses its cool city charm, witnesses hottest summer in 85 yrs

Severe heatwave conditions prevailed in several parts of the country on Monday, with Bengaluru recording the highest-ever maximum temperature for April in 85 years at 39.2 degree Celsius, while Titlagarh in Odisha continued to sizzle at 46 degrees.

The maximum temperatures across several cities in southern and eastern India crossed the 40-degrees mark. However, mercury in central and northern parts of the country continued to hover around normal levels.

Bengaluru recorded the highest-ever maximum temperature of 39.2 degree Celsius for the month of April. “It has broken the previous all-time record of 38.3 degree, recorded on April 30, 1931,” Meteorological Regional Observatory Director-in-Charge Geeta Agnihotri said.

“This time Bengaluru is hotter than Delhi. Its temperature is in the range of 37 degree Celsius, and we (Bengaluru) have been recording 38 degrees for the last four to five days,” she said.

For the last couple of days, she said, Bengaluru has been recording maximum temperature of 3-4 degrees above normal.

Giving reasons for Karnataka experiencing sizzling heat, Agnihotri said it is due to very strong El Nino conditions recorded in 2015 in the subcontinent and absence of convective activity.

According to weatherman, severe heatwave conditions will prevail over the next three days in Telangana, where 49 people have died due to sunstroke. Khammam, Ramagundam and Nalgonda recorded the highest maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius in the state.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government announced the summer vacations on Monday as the state continued to sizzle under a blistering heatwave. The maximum in Titlagarh, which had on Sunday recorded a high of 48.5 degrees Celsius, was 46 degrees Celsius, followed by Bhawani Patna 45.7 and Bolangir 45.5 degrees Celsius.

UP witnessed dry weather conditions with Basti again recording the highest temperature at 43 degrees Celsius. Temperatures were, however, markedly below normal in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.