Weather alert: Delhi braces for extreme heat wave; IMD issues red-code warning

New Delhi: Heat wave conditions will continue in central and northwest central India, including parts of Rajasthan, IMD department said. It has also predicted that temperatures in some parts are expected to reach 50 degree Celsius.

A “red category” alert has been issued for the NCR and several states around it as the city recorded the hottest day of the season on Friday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) uses a colour-coded scale — green, yellow, amber and red — to denote the severity of weather condition, with red being the most extreme.

According to IMD, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, west and east Uttar Pradesh, parts of Rajasthan and Vidarbha are covered by the red warning.

The weather agency has predicted a heat wave to severe heat wave conditions over parts of the northwest, central and adjoining east and peninsular India during the next four to five days.

In extreme heat conditions, there is a very high likelihood of heat illness and heat stroke for people of all ages. Even for orange category warning, the advice is to limit exposure to such conditions.

“North-westerly winds are blowing which are dry and warm. There is no weather system that can bring rainfall except for a very feeble western disturbance which may lower temperatures in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in a couple of days but not in the plains. Heat waves will continue in the plains,” said M Mohapatra, IMD’s director general of meteorology.

“Even if the maximum temperature doesn’t rise further in these places, because the heat is persistent, we have to issue a red category warning,” he added.