'Above normal' temperatures seen in most of India between April-June: IMD

The India Meteorological Department today warned that the average temperatures in most parts of India is expected to be "above normal" between April and June, the period it considers the actual summer season.

The IMD, however, said the temperatures in east, east-central and southern India, which include Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, are likely to be lower than the usual, indicating that the onset of monsoon will be on time.

The "above normal" average temperatures prediction suggests that the warming of the summer season in northern and central India would be a continuation of the pattern seen over the past few years.

Last year was recorded as the hottest year so far by the IMD and other meteorological institutes across the country.

Global warming: Sizzling summer gives southern Europe a taste of the future

Swathes of southern Europe sweltered in a heatwave that has claimed several lives, cost billions in crop damage and is, scientists warned, a foretaste of worse to follow in coming decades.

At least five deaths in Italy and Romania have been attributed to the extreme conditions since the heatwave set in around the start of August.

Unusually high, sometimes unprecedented temperatures, are being recorded across an area spanning much of Spain and Portugal, southern France, Italy, the Balkans and Hungary.

The mercury has regularly risen above 40 degrees Celsius across the affected areas, exacerbating the impact of an extended drought and the lingering impact of a July heatwave which sparked wildfires that claimed 60 lives in Portugal.

Hospital admissions have spiked 15-20 per cent in Italy, where at least three people have died.

Italians longing for the beach have dubbed the hot spell "Lucifero", or Lucifer, after the biblical archangel said to have been condemned forever to the flames of hell.
READ MORE