By IANS,
New Delhi : People in the eastern coast of India heaved a sigh of relief of Wednesday as a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal started to move away, towards Myanmar. In the northern and central parts of the country, though, the heat wave that has already killed 11 people in Orissa and three in Gujarat remained relentless.
The heat wave has already claimed several lives in the country. According to officials in Orissa, at least 11 people have died so far due to heatstroke.
“We have received information about 56 deaths… at least 11 of them have been confirmed as deaths due to sunstroke,” a senior official of the state revenue control room told IANS.
Health officials have been instructed to stock medicines and oral re-hydration solutions to prevent dehydration in people coming to hospitals after sunstroke, he said.
In Gujarat, at least three people were killed in Narmada, Bhavnagar and Rajkot districts due to heatstroke last weekend.
It was another scorching day in the capital Wednesday, with a maximum temperature of 41 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 21.6 degrees Celsius. The met department has forecast more of the same across northern and central India, at least till Saturday.
The highest maximum temperature was recorded at Khjuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur in Maharashtra, both at 45.2 degrees Celsius.
Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha in Maharashtra sizzled in the heat wave.
The met office said the maximum temperature is likely to increase over the southern half of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and northern Andhra Pradesh in the next two to three days.
But northeastern states and southern India will continue to enjoy rainy weather, at least till Thursday.
At 8.30 a.m. Wednesday, Cyclone Nargis lay centred some 950 km west-southwest of Sandoway in Myanmar and was moving northeastwards across the Bay of Bengal, the met department said in its latest bulletin.
Under its influence, rain and thundershower is likely at Andaman Islands till Friday.
The following were the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Wednesday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature (C) Minimum Temperature (C) Rainfall (mm)
New Delhi 41.0 (+3) 21.6 (-1) Nil
Mumbai 33.3 (0) 25.3 (0) Nil
Chennai 37.1 (+3) 29.0 (+2) Nil
Kolkata 36.1 (0) 27.0 (+1) Nil
Ahmedabad 40.0 (+1) 23.5 (-1) Nil
Bangalore 32.7 (-1) 20.5 (-1) TRACE
Bhopal 42.5 (+3) 25.0 (+2) Nil
Bhubaneswar 36.5 (-1) 26.6 (+1) Nil
Chandigarh 41.0 (+5) 24.0 (+3) Nil
Dehradun 37.5 (+3) 20.3 (+1) Nil
Goa 33.4 (0) 25.8 (0) Nil
Guwahati 31.0 (-1) 21.8 (+1) 9.6
Hyderabad 41.6 (+4) 25.8 (+1) Nil
Jaipur 43.2 (+5) 23.0 (0) Nil
Lucknow 42.6 (+3) 21.4 (-1) Nil
Nagpur 45.2 (+4) 26.7 (+1) Nil
Patna 41.5 (+3) 26.0 (+2) Nil
Pune 37.8 (+1) 21.4 (0) Nil
Srinagar 26.4 (+5) 8.4 (-1) 0.0
Thiruvananthapuram 32.3 (+1) 26.0 (+1) TRACE