Lucknow: Arrival of the southwest (SW) monsoon in Uttar Pradesh has been delayed and is now expected to hit the eastern parts like Ballia and Gorakhpur somewhere around June 25, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. Normally the monsoon arrives in the state on June 19 and in Lucknow by June 21-22, an official said.
The IMD has issued a red alert in 22 U.P. districts till June 20 and orange alert in 18 districts till June 22.
“All we can say is that the monsoon will be delayed by a few days. Exact date of arrival of the southwest monsoon in U.P. can only be forecast only when it reaches the border of Bihar,” said Mohd Danish, incharge of Lucknow met office. Till then people will have to brace themselves for severe heat waves in many places across the state, he added.
The IMD has issued a red alert in 22 districts till June 20 and orange alert in 18 districts till June 22. The IMD uses four colour codes for weather warnings—green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action).
Conditions are favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon in some more parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh and northwest Bay of Bengal, some parts of Gangetic West Bengal, remaining parts of Sub Himalayan West Bengal and some parts of Bihar and Jharkhand during the next three to four days, according to the IMD bulletin.
Light to moderate rain likely from today:
Due to the impact of western disturbance and its reaction with the easterly wind, light to moderate rain along with thunderstorms in the northern Terai areas likely to start from Wednesday (June 19) is likely to provide relief from severe heat wave conditions in the northern Terai areas. It is likely to continue for the next 3-4 days with gradual decrease in intensity in the central and southern parts.
“Hot night conditions due to severe heat wave continued even on Tuesday in Lucknow and it is likely to continue with gradual decrease during the next 3-4 days,” the weatherman said.
Slight decrease in day temp, heat wave
Although there was some let-up in the heat wave conditions on Tuesday due to the drop in temperature and also due to the movement of clouds in southern parts of the state.
Despite this, due to the dry and hot westerly winds blowing at a speed of 25-35 km/hr across the state and increase in temperature of the northern Terai regions of the state due to intense solar radiation heating (strong sunlight), heat wave conditions persisted at most places in Uttar Pradesh (75% stations) as well as severe heat wave conditions at some places.
While Orai experienced the hottest day in the state with a maximum temperature of 46.4°C, Kanpur experienced the hottest night in the state with a minimum temperature of 35.3°C. Orai was hottest in the state where mercury rose to 46.4 degrees Celsius followed by Kanpur (IAF) 46.3, Aligarh 45.4 and Jhansi where the temperature was 45.3 degrees Celsius.
Warmest June night in Lucknow after 1998:
Night has become increasingly warmer in Lucknow. After June 1998, the U.P. capital recorded highest night temperature of 32.6°C (5.6 degrees above normal) in June on Tuesday. It is the third hottest night of June in the observation history (1950-2024) of the state capital.
Maximum temperature in the state capital was 45.3 degrees Celsius (7.3 degrees above normal). Forecast for Lucknow is mainly clear sky. Strong surface wind (speed 20-30 kmph) is very likely over the area.
Maximum and minimum temperature on Wednesday will be around 44 and 33 degrees Celsius respectively in the state capital. The IMD has issued warnings of heat wave conditions very likely to continue during mid-day and afternoon.
Warm nights to continue at isolated places:
Apart from this, the minimum temperature also remained 5-7 degrees Celsius higher than normal, and hot night to intense hot night conditions also persisted at some places in the state.
During the last 24 hours, night temperature increased significantly in Bareilly division, decreased significantly in Jhansi and Agra divisions and there was no major change in all divisions.
The highest minimum temperature in the state was recorded at 35.3°C in Kanpur (IAF) and the lowest minimum temperature was recorded at 26.2°C in Fatehpur.