Climate crisis: Kutch and Konkan region off of the heat wave radar

By Khushi Singh, Staff reporter

New Delhi: What came as a shock from the Indian Meteorological Department on Sunday, about the expected early arrival of heat waves in the Kutch and Konkana region, has been withdrawn by the IMD on Monday.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts and monitors weather and meteorological operations in and around the Indian Sub-continent.

Monitoring the unusually high-temperature ranges in west and north-western India, the IMD issued a heat wave alert which would be the season’s first and earliest-ever heat wave alert, as per previous patterns.

An alert like this from the IMD as early as mid-February somewhere lays the base for temperatures over the summer of 2023.

India had barely come out from its winter dews, and now record high temperatures indicate a possible miss of the Indian spring, taking a direct leap to the scorching summers.

This statement by the IMD clearly indicates that March would be naturally hotter than usual and May recording new temperature highs should be expected.

It was only when the IMD report started worrying weather-sensitive businesses, a breeze of relief was felt when IMD withdrew its statements.

Indian Meteorological Department’s senior scientist, Naresh Kumar said, “These regions have been seeing clear skies due to the lack of strong western disturbances. The feeble WDs impacted only the western Himalayan region, mainly Jammu and Kashmir”.

“We have withdrawn the heat wave warning for these regions with the temperatures showing a decreasing tendency due to sea breeze. Maximum temperatures are predicted to drop by two to three degrees Celsius in the next two-three days,” he said.

It’s not even a month since half of India was reeling under a cold wave, but now, most of its states are experiencing an unusual rise in temperature in February.

This year, February witnessed an abnormal rise in temperature, observed Indian Meteorological Department.

Shimla recorded the highest-ever maximum and minimum temperature recorded in February. IMD has forecasted heatwave-like conditions in parts of Gujarat and the Maharashtra-Goa region till 21 Feb.

Though this new announcement comes as a quick relief, we can’t forget that in December of 2023, World Bank had released a report stating that temperatures during summer, could reach new highs in India crossing the human survivability rate. The past patterns and rising rates of global warming only justify this statement.