Relief from scorching heat coming, IMD predicts dust, thunderstorm on May 29-30

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Monday (May 25) that dust and thunderstorms are likely over different parts of north India on May 29-30, bringing relief from the scorching temperature.

The temperature in Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and some parts of Uttar Pradesh have already crossed 45 degrees Celsius in the last few days.

A red colour-coded alert was issued by IMD on Sunday (May 24) for north India for May 25-26 when the temperature is expected to reach its peak.

According to Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the Regional Meteorological Department of the IMD, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are expected to witness dust storm and thunderstorm activity due to a western disturbance and easterly winds on May 29-30.

The IMD predicted that the wind speed would touch around 50-60 kilometres per hour during this period.

The IMD also said in its daily bulletin that heatwave conditions over some parts and severe heatwave conditions at isolated pockets are very likely over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha during May 25-27.

Some isolated pockets of Punjab, Chhattisgarh, interior Odisha, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathawada, interior Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Jharkhand are also expected to witness heatwave conditions during next 2-3 days.

“Due to prevailing dry north-westerly winds over plains of northwest India, central India and adjoining interior parts of eastern India, present heatwave conditions very likely to continue to prevail over these areas till May 28 with peak intensity on May 25 and 26,” the IMD said in its daily bulletin.

Meanwhile, Delhi saw a peak power demand that clocked over 5268 MW, the season’s highest so far, on the night of May 24, 2020. It was also marginally more than the peak power demand (5094 MW) recorded on May 24, 2019.

The surge in power demand was mostly because of the heat wave conditions in north India. Hot and dry weather continued to prevail in the national capital on Monday (May 25) with the maximum temperature hovering close to 45 degrees Celsius in most parts of the city.