Weather update: No respite from heatwave for next few days as mercury soars across India - Check full forecast here

The temperature in Uttar Pradesh's Banda logged a record high of 47.4 degrees Celsius for April as torrid heatwave sent the mercury soaring across large swathes of the country on Friday. 

The mercury breached the 46-degree Celsius mark in several places in the country, including Allahabad, Jhansi and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, these cities recorded all-time high temperatures for April at 46.8 degrees Celsius, 46.2 degrees Celsius and 45.1 degrees Celsius respectively. Meanwhile, Gurugram in Haryana and Satna in Madhya Pradesh also recorded their respective all-time highs for the month at 45.9 degrees Celsius and 45.3 degrees Celsius.

On the other hand, the Delhi's Sports Complex observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 46.4 degrees Celsius, Rajasthan's Ganganagar 46.4 degrees Celsius, Madhya Pradesh's Nowgong 46.2 degrees Celsius and Maharashtra's Chandrapur 46.4 degrees Celsius. Delhi's Safdarjung Observatory, the national capital's base station, recorded a maximum temperature of 43.5 degrees Celsius for the second day on the trot.

Amid the intense heatwave, India's peak power demand reached an all-time high of 204.65 GW. 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the heatwave spell will persist over northwest and central India till May 2 and over east India till April 30.

An 'orange alert' has been issued for Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra for Saturday. The IMD uses four colour codes for weather warnings. Green means no action is needed, yellow refers to watch and stay updated, orange means be prepared and red alert means take action.

The heatwave is expected to abate from Monday under the influence of a western disturbance, which is likely to affect northwest India from the night of May 1, IMD said. Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana may witness light rainfall and thunderstorm between May 2 and May 4. The maximum temperatures will be between 36 degrees Celsius and 39 degrees Celsius, senior scientist R K Jenamani said.

A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius and at least 4.5 notches above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4 notches, according to the IMD. Based on absolute recorded temperatures, a heatwave is declared when an area logs a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius. A severe heatwave is declared if the maximum temperature crosses the 47-degree Celsius mark.

Large parts of India have been recording higher than normal temperatures since the last week of March, with weather experts attributing it to the absence of periodic light rainfall and thundershowers, typical for this time of the year, due to the lack of active western disturbances.

India saw its warmest March this year since the IMD began keeping records 122 years ago, amid a 71 per cent rain deficit. Having recorded three prolonged heatwave spells, this April could be one of the hottest in the history of the country, Met official said.