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‘Heatwave to continue in Northern India as monsoon progress sluggish’

New Delhi: A sluggish southwest monsoon on Wednesday covered large parts of Maharashtra, awaiting a fresh pulse to march across central and northern India, which continued to reel under intense heat conditions.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said monsoon could cover Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh and north-west Bay of Bengal during the next three to four days.

“The Bay of Bengal arm of the monsoon is weak and is awaiting a fresh pulse to take it forward,” an official said.

Heatwave conditions were observed on Wednesday in most parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand; in many parts of north Rajasthan; in some parts of Himachal Pradesh, south Bihar, north Odisha and in isolated pockets of Gangetic West Bengal.

Severe heatwave conditions were also observed in isolated pockets of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal. The maximum temperatures were in the range of 45-47 degrees Celsius over some parts of west Jharkhand, south Uttar Pradesh, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Punjab, north Rajasthan. The highest maximum temperature of 47.5 degrees was reported at Kanpur IAF in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Monsoon watchers said the low-level warm winds from the northwest were dominating the weak monsoon pulse over the Bay of Bengal and prolonging the hot weather conditions in parts of central and northern India. Former Earth Sciences secretary Madhavan Rajeevan said after a normal progress, monsoon is going into a hiatus mode.

“Not much progress is expected in the next 8-10 days, thus delaying onset over north India. This causes extreme temperatures & heat waves over north India, including Delhi, UP and Bihar,” Rajeevan said on X.

According to the weather office, the monsoon is expected to reach Bihar and Jharkhand by June 16-18, Uttar Pradesh from June 20-30, and Delhi around June 27, which is the normal onset date for the national capital.

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