New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said Northwest, central and west India are predicted to record maximum temperatures three to five degrees above normal over the next five days.
Many parts of the country are already recording temperatures that are usually recorded in the first week of March.
The Met office had said Monday that significantly higher-than-normal temperatures may have an adverse impact on wheat and other crops.
A senior meteorologist at the IMD said temperatures in northwest India are likely to drop by two degrees Celsius over the next two days after a western disturbance affecting the western Himalayan region recedes.
However, maximum temperatures are likely to remain three to five degrees above normal in the region as well as central and west India over the next five days, he said.
On Monday, most places in northwest, central and west India logged their maximum temperatures in the range of 35 degrees Celsius to 39 degrees Celsius.
Delhi on Monday recorded the third hottest February day since 1969 with the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory, the national capital’s primary weather station, soaring to 33.6 degrees Celsius.
The city had recorded an all-time high of 34.1 degrees Celsius on February 26, 2006, and a maximum temperature of 33.9 degrees on February 17, 1993.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) regional forecasting centre, said the lack of strong western disturbances was the primary reason for the early heat in Delhi and other parts of northwest India.
