BHUBANESWAR: The sweltering heatwave is set to prolong, heaping more miseries on people, as the South-West monsoon is likely to get delayed going by the current positioning of the northern limit which has not covered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as yet.As per the original forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the northern limit of the South-West monsoon was supposed to advance into the Andamans by May 20 but even four days later it has not happened. This could mean, the monsoon will be delayed over Kerala. The normal date of onset over Kerala is June 1.“Unless there is a system that activates the monsoon flow over Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, the tardy progress hints at a delay of about four to five days,” weather experts revealed. As per IMD’s normal schedule, monsoon hits Odisha by June 10 but this year too, it could see a delay.What this means is that the blistering hot conditions may linger longer. While it was predicted that the hot conditions will prevail up to May 30, relief is unlikely to come by even after that.The heatwave conditions in the State depend upon the strong north-westerly flow of wind. The intense heatwave on Thursday claimed five more lives pushing the unofficial death roll to 65. Four deaths were reported from Sundargarh district where the mercury read 45 degree Celsius. The fifth report came in from Keonjhar. As per the unconfirmed reports, Sundargarh has reported 10 sunstroke deaths followed by seven each in Keonjhar and Jagatsinghpur. The official toll, though, remains unchanged at 10.Even as the weather office has predicted prevalence of the heatwave for another two days at least, day temperature soared at many places. Sambalpur emerged as the hottest with the maximum day temperature reading 46 degree C.As many as six towns __ all located on the hot plate of the State __ registered 45-plus temperature on the day. Besides Sambalpur, Hirakud (45.7), Titlagarh (45.6), Balangir (45.5), Jharsuguda (45.4), and Bhawanipatna (45.2) continued to sizzle.
Comments
0 comment