IMD sees no relief from heat wave for next 20 days

As the country celebrated World Environment Day on Monday, the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) has alerted people about the rise in occurrences of heatwaves as well as heatstrokes for the next 20 days.

According to the IMD predictions, the heatwaves would continue to trouble people for the coming 20 days as the monsoon is expected to cover northern regions of the country by June end.

"As per the data reports, there would be no major changes in the weather pattern. The heatwaves and heatstrokes would continue to trouble as the monsoon would take its course to arrive in northern regions," IMD Director General KG Ramesh said.

"The monsoon has arrived in Kerala and has started moving to other destinations, but it will take at least 20 more days to reach areas under the influence of heat waves. Till then, people have to bear it and protect themselves from being affected by it by adopting preventive measures," the IMD chief said.

As the temperature is on the rise, it seems 2017 may prove to be another warmest year following 2016, which was the second warmest year on record with a temperature of 1.26 degrees C higher than the baseline. The winters of 2017 (January to February) has already been marked as hottest in recorded history with a temperature of 2.95 degrees higher than the baseline.

Raising an alarm over drastic changes in weather patterns, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in its latest study has noted that the country has been getting warmer continuously, consistently and rapidly.

Commenting on the development, Chandra Bhushan, who is deputy director general of CSE, said, "The implications of this fundamental fact are serious for the economic, social and ecological well-being of the country. We are experiencing frequent extreme weather events, and our weather is becoming unpredictable. Losses due to extreme weather events are mounting and it is our poor who are suffering the pains of the climate change."

The heat waves have claimed the lives of over 500 across the country, with southern states alone registering about 300 deaths due to heat strokes this year as the temperature has touched above 47 degrees Celsius mark in various states.