Bhopal scorches as tempstays above 42° for 4th day

Bhopal: Heatwave conditions continued to prevail across Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, with Bhopal recording another sweltering day as temperatures remained above 42 degrees for the fourth consecutive day, while the meteorological department issued heatwave alerts for several districts for Sunday.

The state capital recorded a maximum temperature of 42.4 degrees on Saturday, slightly lower than Friday's 42.8 degrees, but residents continued to face intense heat and dry conditions through the day. The minimum temperature on Friday night settled at 27.8 degrees. Met officials said the sky is likely to remain clear on Sunday and the maximum and minimum temperatures in Bhopal are expected to hover around 42 and 28 degrees, respectively.

According to weather officials, orange alerts for heatwave conditions have been issued for Ratlam, Khargone and Khandwa districts on Sunday, while yellow alerts were sounded for Niwari, Tikamgarh, Chhattarpur, Panna, Satna, Rewa, Mauganj, Sidhi, Singrauli, Damoh, Sagar, Raisen, Vidisha, Ashok Nagar, Guna, Rajgarh, Agar Malwa, Ujjain, Indore, Dhar, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani and Burhanpur districts.

The meteorological department said the impact of heatwave conditions was recorded in Khandwa and Ratlam districts during the last 24 hours. Maximum temperatures across most divisions of the state witnessed no significant change, but remained above normal by 1.8 to 2.5 degrees in districts of Bhopal and Indore divisions and appreciably above normal by around 3.2 degrees in districts of Ujjain division. Minimum temperatures remained largely normal across the state.

Meanwhile, light rainfall activity was recorded at a few places in Shahdol division and at isolated locations in Chambal, Rewa, Jabalpur and Sagar divisions during the last 24 hours, while the remaining divisions of the state continued to remain dry. Meteorological officials said prevailing dry northwesterly winds and clear-sky conditions are contributing to the continued spell of intense heat across central and western parts of the state.