Summer: India sees hottest February ever with more pain ahead
India is likely to face a blistering summer after recording its hottest February since 1901, its weather department has said.
March 1: Average maximum temperature was 29.5C in February, the highest since India started keeping proper weather records.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also forecast "enhanced probability" of heatwaves between March and May.
Prolonged heat could affect wheat production and push up power demand.
"Above normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of northeast India, east and central India and some parts of northwest India" from March to May, the IMD said in a statement on Tuesday.
The forecast comes days after the weather department issued and later withdrew its first heatwave alert for the year in parts of western India after conditions improved.
Hot summers and heatwaves are common in India, especially in May and June. But like last year, summer seems set to begin earlier this year - last March was India's hottest since 1901.
Experts have also said that India is now experiencing more intense, frequent heatwaves that are longer in duration.
Last year, India was forced to ban wheat exports after unseasonably hot weather affected the crop, sending local prices soaring.
In February, the federal government set up a committee to monitor the impact of high temperatures on this year's harvest. Reuters had cited an unnamed government official as saying at the time that "the current crop condition looks good".
India is the world's second biggest wheat producer.
The unusually high temperatures had also triggered a spike in power demand last year, leading to outages in many states.
This year too, demand for electricity has already reached near-record levels in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported.
Many experts have also been raising concerns about the effect of extreme heat on poor people, who often have to work outside and less access to resources to help them stay cool.
"Heatwaves can have serious health consequences. If temperatures are high even at night, the body doesn't get a chance to recuperate, increasing the possibility of illnesses and higher medical bills," Dr Chandni Singh, an environmental scientist, told the BBC last year.
India saw a 55% rise in deaths due to extreme heat between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021, according to a study published last year in the medical journal, The Lancet.
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