Kolkata: The weather office on Sunday warned of heatwave prevailing in districts across the state till May 2. They have notified no large change in day temperature during the next 5 days.
Mainly dry westerly to north westerly wind at lower levels continue to prevail over the region and due to strong solar insolation, heatwave condition is very likely to prevail over the districts of Bengal during this period.
On Saturday, severe heatwave conditions prevailed over Howrah, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas, West Medinipur, East Burdwan and West Burdwan districts. Heatwave conditions also prevailed over Kolkata, Madia, Bankura, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Jhargram and Purulia, among other districts.
The highest maximum temperature was recorded at Raiganj with 41.1 degree Celsius in North Bengal and 45.8 degree Celsius in South Bengal.
Apart from no large change in day temperature in the next five days, minimum relative humidity is likely to be around 20-40 per cent during the afternoon.
Red warning has been issued at several places, including Bankura, Birbhum, West Medinipur, East and West Burdwan. The weather office has issued an orange warning over North 24-Parganas and several other places across Bengal.
In North Bengal, three districts, including Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong will receive rainfall while for other districts like Malda, Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur and Alipurduar is likely to have dry weather.
The weather experts have pointed out that the city has witnessed the hottest April this year after 1980 when it had registered over 40 degree Celsius for consecutive days for the last time. “Currently, Kolkata is in the midst of a 10-day heatwave. On five occasions, the maximum temperature has breached the 40°C mark. The April 1980 heatwave was considerably shorter in comparison,” a weather official said.