Heat wave like conditions that existed in parts of East India around the 2nd half of February are likely to return once again to Central & East India. Our regular readers would remember Bhubaneswar recorded 40.9°C on 20th February, the first 40°C of 2016 in India, during this period.
As we get to the second part of this week Central & East India are likely to see heat wave like conditions return once again. Yesterday we had posted the expected temperature anomaly chart for the coming week which indicated a potential situation like this developing.
From 10th parts of Odisha & Chhattisgarh are likely to see temperatures inch closer to 40°C at many places and it may be possible for quite a few places to cross this threshold level as well. These areas could see on an average day time temperatures about 4 – 6°C above normal during this spell. As the weekend approaches the heat wave like conditions will spread eastward towards neighboring West Bengal and parts of Bihar as well.
Pockets of Madhya Pradesh, Telengana, North Coastal Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra (around the Vidharba region) could see one or two places also record high temperatures during this period though this could be isolated in these states.
In the meanwhile the southern states are also likely to see increase in day time temperatures which we will cover separately. Today could be one of those last few days when most places in Tamil Nadu are likely to see warm day time temperatures with the season expected to make a firm change towards summer in the coming days.