No relief from heatwave in northwest India next week, says IMD

📌 Summary:

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that "severe" heatwave conditions will persist over northwest India for another week, with both day and night temperatures significantly above normal

• Severe heatwave is forecast over east Uttar Pradesh and east Madhya Pradesh till May 28; heatwave to sweep Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, MP and UP till May 28

• Banda (east UP) remained the country's hottest place at 47.6 degrees Celsius; maximum temperatures stayed about 5.1 degrees Celsius above normal across J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi and east UP

• Heatwave also forecast for Bihar (till May 24), Chhattisgarh/Jharkhand/Odisha/Telangana (till May 26), and the Andhra coast and Yanam (till May 26); strong surface winds of 20-40 km/hr to prevail over the northwest

• Southwest monsoon, after early onset over the Andaman Sea, is advancing into the southeast Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal and is likely to hit Kerala on May 26

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Disaster Management and GS1 Geography — heatwaves as a notified disaster, climate variability, and monsoon onset dynamics.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• A heatwave is declared when maximum temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (plains) / 30 degrees Celsius (hills) and the departure from normal is 4.5-6.4 degrees Celsius; "severe" heatwave is a departure of over 6.4 degrees Celsius

• Banda in eastern Uttar Pradesh recorded 47.6 degrees Celsius

• Monsoon normal onset date over Kerala is June 1; in 2026 it is forecast for May 26

🔑 Key Term: Heatwave — a period of abnormally high temperatures relative to the normal for a region, classified by IMD using both absolute thresholds and departure from normal.