Kerala gets first heat wave warning on blazing El Nino trail

Kerala has been served with what is said to be its first ever heat wave warning as the ‘hot weather season’ blazes on the trail of a monster 2015 El Nino.

The local Met office here has issued the extreme heat alert for isolated places of the State for both Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday saw Palakkad in the North Kerala set an all-time record of 42 deg Celsius in maximum day temperatures. The district is a traditional hotspot in the State along with Punalur towards the South.

But the mercury may have peaked out in the State, according to K Santhosh, Director, Met Office, Thiruvananthapuram.

“Temperatures are forecast to climb down from now, especially after April 29, when thundershowers activity in the State is expected to pick up,” he told BusinessLine.

The ensuing wet spell will grow even more in intensity from May 2 onwards with helpful atmospheric features developing in tandem.

The US Climate Prediction Centre also agrees with this outlook and sees thundershowers spreading out over South Kerala and adjoining Tamil Nadu from May 3.

Spill-over rain is indicated for further areas to the North in Kerala and even parts of Coastal Karnataka during the week starting as on date, the US agency said.

The week will also see thundershowers converge over the hills and adjoining plains of North-West India with localised heavy rain over parts of Himachal Pradesh and adjoining Punjab.

Parts of Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh, and West Uttar Pradesh may also witness passing thundershowers, according to this forecast.

Gangetic West Bengal in the East will be another region to watch out for summer showers while the ongoing activity in the adjoining North-Eastern states may quieten down during the week.

The US National Centre for Environmental Prediction sees thundershowers spreading out to more areas in interior Peninsula, including the drought-hit Karnataka, Telangana and Coastal Andhra Pradesh during April 27 to May 5.

The following week (May 5 to 13) may witness a further intensification of thundershower activity over Kerala, followed by South Interior Karnataka and the rest of the Peninsula including Tamil Nadu.

But meteorologists would not hazard a guess on what material impact the thundershowers could bring about for some of the worst drought-hit regions of Peninsular India.

The fact that seasonal thundershowers have been delayed in Kerala (normally they begin around April 21) is widely thought would have a deleterious effect on the timing of the onset of the South-West monsoon.

It is likely to be delayed by up to 10 days this year beyond the June-1 normal, according to eminent monsoon researcher and former Met director PV Joseph.