Weather alert: Heatwave continues to grip North India, no respite till Wednesday

Severe heatwave is likely to prevail over North West, Central and majority of peninsular India for the next two days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.

The surging heat will pass over Vidarbha over the next five days and over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and south Uttar Pradesh during next two days, the IMD said.

Severe heat wave conditions were likely to prevail over Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh over the next 24 hours. Any decrease in intensity was likely only thereafter, it added.

Conditions, though were becoming favourable for further advance of the Southwest Monsoon into extreme southern parts of the Arabian Sea, some more parts of Maldive-Comorin Area, southwest, southeast and eastcentral Bay of Bengal in the next 24 hours.

It said an east-west shear zone at 3.1 km above mean sea level was very likely to develop across extreme south peninsula from June 5 onwards leading to favourable conditions for onset of the Southwest Monsoon over Kerala subsequently.

Fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls was very likely over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during next four-five days, the IMD said.

The minimum temperature here was recorded at 29.4 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average. While the maximum was likely to hover around 43 degrees Celsius. Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was recorded at 57 per cent.

On Sunday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average, while the minimum was 30.8 degrees, three notches above the normal.

However, thunderstorm accompanied with squall & lightning (50-60 kmph) at isolated places is very likely over Uttarakhand, IMD has warned.