PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The State Meteorological Centre has issued a yellow warning for a heat wave likely to occur at isolated places in Haridwar, Dehradun and adjoining areas of Uttarkashi district adjacent to Dehradun district on Wednesday. Apart from this, very light to light rain/thunderstorms are likely to occur at isolated places in Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts while dry weather is likely to prevail in the remaining districts of the State today.
The centre informed on Tuesday that during the past 24 hours, maximum temperatures remained normal to appreciably above normal in the plains and normal to markedly above normal in the mountainous areas of the State. The maximum temperatures are likely to rise gradually by 1-3 degrees Celsius during the next couple of days and no significant change is likely to occur thereafter in the State. The provisional State capital Dehradun is forecast to witness a mainly clear sky with the maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be about 40 degrees Celsius and 23 degrees Celsius respectively today.
Meanwhile, Tuesday saw the maximum temperature in Dehradun rising about four degrees Celsius above normal to 39.7 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature was a degree above normal at 23.1 degrees Celsius. Pantnagar’s maximum temperature was three degrees Celsius above normal at 40.2 degrees Celsius with the minimum two degrees Celsius above normal at 23.9 degrees Celsius. Similarly, the maximum temperature in Mukteshwar was five degrees above normal at 29.5 degrees Celsius with the minimum three degrees above normal at 15.2 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature in New Tehru was a degree below normal at 27.9 degrees Celsius and the minimum was a degree above normal at 16.8 degrees Celsius.
The heat coupled with the dust resulting from excavations carried out for civic works saw a noticeable drop in road traffic in some areas of Dehradun especially during the peak hot hours of the afternoon. With the meteorological centre forecasting a further rise in temperatures in the coming days, the real effects of the heat in the Himalayan State are expected to become worse in the near future.
