By IANS,
New Delhi : A relentlessly scorching sun fried and frazzled people in north and central India Tuesday, even as people in the south braced for more rain.
The met department has forecast thundershowers in the Bay of Bengal region, including coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as also in the Lakshadweep island chain off the west coast in the 48 hours to Thursday evening.
In the northeast, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh will receive thundershowers in the same period.
Cyclonic storm Nargis over westcentral and south Bay of Bengal remained practically stationary and lay centred at 1430 hours IST Tuesday, according to the met department.
However, people in north and central India continued to suffer from an intense heat wave and the weather office saw no relief in the immediate future. The weather across the region will remain dry. Officials have also forecast duststorms in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
The maximum temperature in northwest and central India was two to four degrees above normal Tuesday. The highest maximum temperature was recorded in Barmer in Rajasthan at 44.5 degrees Celsius.
In the capital, the maximum temperature was 40.1 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was 21.5 degrees Celsius.
Many office-goers in Delhi had a difficult time travelling under the scorching sun. Those who were lucky enough to travel in airconditioned cars still had to contend with traffic gridlocks at many places.
On some of the roads, there was very little traffic even at noon as commuters preferred to stay indoors till the sweltering heat subsided.
The following were the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Sunday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall (C) (C) (mm)
New Delhi 40.7 (+3) 21.5 (-2) Nil
Mumbai 32.8 (0) 25.6 (+1) Nil
Chennai 34.9 (+1) 28.4 (+1) Nil
Kolkata 33.7 (-2) 28.0 (+2) Nil
Ahmedabad 4 1.2 (0) 23.0 (-1) Nil
Bangalore 32.1 (+2) 22.0 (+1) Nil
Bhopal 42.0 (+3) 24.2 (+1) Nil
Bhubaneswar 36.8 (-1) 26.7 (+1) Nil
Chandigarh 40.2 (+4) 22.4 (+1) Nil
Dehradun 35.5 (+1) 20.2 (+1) Nil
Goa 33.6 (+1) 26.3 (0) Nil
Guwahati 33.1 (+1) 21.2 (0) 26.2
Hyderabad 40.3 (+2) 23.7 ( -1) Nil
Jaipur 42.8 (+5) 22.0 (-1) Nil
Lucknow 42.0 (+2) 20.4 (-2) Nil
Nagpur 44.2 (+3) 25.8 (+1) Nil
Patna 40.3 (+2) 24.2 (-1) Nil
Pune 37.4 (0) 20.2 (-1) Nil
Srinagar 26.6 (+6) 8.6 (0) 0.2
Thiruvananthapuram 30.5 (-1) 25.6 (+1) 0.6