Heat And Dust, Revisited

A severe heat wave has engulfed almost the entire country in the last one week with the occasional dust storms offering temporary relief in some areas. The northern plains, that were earlier spared the effect of the dry, hot winds from the western desert and adjoining Pakistan, are now experiencing extremely high temperatures with the mercury crossing the 45° C mark in Amritsar, Delhi, Hissar and Kanpur.

There are severe heat wave conditions over most parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. "The northwesterly winds from the desert areas in Rajasthan and adjoining Pakistan have now heated up almost the entire peninsula and there is a heat wave," says S.K. Subhramanian, deputy director general of meteorology, India Meteorological Department. Subhramanian, however, says that the wind pattern is likely to change in a few days and moist southwesterly winds are going to bring temperatures down.

As the entire region gets warmer, it's hard to imagine that it was Bihar, Orissa, parts of eastern UP and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the south that had to bear the brunt of the summer this year. While the temperature remained well within 40° C throughout May in the Gangetic plains, the dry heat from the desert areas in Gujarat and Rajasthan spread through the Deccan plateau and parts of Bihar and Orissa through the northwesterly winds. Andhra Pradesh, as it turned out, has been the worst hit.

To make matters worse, there is no sign of the pre-monsoon rain that usually cools off parts of the Deccan plateau and Orissa before the monsoons hit. Of course, there's the other bit of bad news—the southwest monsoon has been delayed by a good 10 days.

"We've renewed our warning to people about staying indoors and not venture out in the sun. The entire Telangana region and coastal areas are experiencing very hot weather. The main problem is the pre-monsoon rainfall has been practically absent this year. It has added to the heat wave conditions," says C.V.V. Bhadram, director, Met office, Hyderabad.

The Met office experts, however, disagree with "unauthenticated" temperature records that reveal that the mercury has crossed the 50° C mark in some parts of Andhra. The India Meteorological Office clarifies that the only place where the temperature has crossed the 50° C mark is Titlagarh in the Bolangir district, Orissa.

"There was a pronounced heat trough extending from Bihar to Tamil Nadu generating strong northwesterly winds that resulted in severe heat wave conditions in these areas. But this trough is now becoming less pronounced. This is likely to provide respite from the heat wave," says Subhramanian.

But with the southwest monsoon delayed, this respite may be a fleeting one.