Monsoon forecast by IMD: Hot spring, scorching summer in the offing

Indian Meteorological Department (MET) has just come out with its annual summer forecast, and it’s not pleasant. The summer months between March and May will be “warmer” than normal and several parts of north India will be at least a degree hotter than their average summer temperatures, IMD said. Mean seasonal temperature-spikes in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, west and east Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, west and east Uttar Pradesh, west and east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh will be greater than 1 degree celsius.
 
Tamil Nadu, south interior Karnataka and Rayalaseema would see temperature rise between 0.5 degrees Celsius and 1 degree Celsius from their historical normal.
 
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand could be hottest, the IMD said, while several states could face record high temperature-spikes.
 
Meanwhile, D Sivananda Pai, head of IMD’s long term forecasting division noted that it is too early to talk about monsoon forecast at the moment. "IMD will come out with its first forecast on monsoon in second half of April," told Pai to BTVi.
 
Several parts of India, from Palakkad in Kerala to Mumbai, on Tuesday reportedly witnessed a temperature more than 35 degrees Celsius. “We haven’t yet analysed February temperatures but this could be just a phase,” KJ Ramesh, Director-General, India Meteorological Department reportedly said.
 
Last year, the IMD had reportedly forecast summer temperatures in several parts of north, northwest, central and east India to be over 1 degree Celsius of their historical summer normals. The IMD’s climate summary in January stated that 2017 was the “fourth warmest year on record since 1901”.
 
“Studies also indicate increasing trends in the frequency and duration of heat waves over the country, which can be attributed to increasing trends in the greenhouse gases and the warming of the sea surface temperatures over the equatorial Indian and Pacific oceans,” the IMD in its statement said.