Heat kills 237 in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh; Khammam boils at 48 degree celsius

Hyderabad: Cities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continued to reel under searing heat on Saturday, restricting people indoors.  As per government reports, the death toll in the heatwave in both states rose to 237. However, unofficial reports pegged the toll at 196 in AP and 184 in TS.

Temperatures remained high, even if not record-breaking, between 45ºC to 47ºC in several cities of the two states. Khammam recorded a high of 47.8ºC, which is the highest recorded temperature there in 68 years. Vijayawada came close to breaking its highest mercury records with 47.3ºC.

Hyderabad witnessed a maximum of 42.5ºC. While the temperature seems normal in the context of the severe heatwave sweeping the region, the outside temperature felt much higher.

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Meteorologists say that this is because of the insulation and the absence of cloud cover. The afternoon seemed the hottest because of the radiation from the sun as well as the ground.

Places like Nizamabad, Ramagundam, Machilipatnam, Vijayawada, Bapatla and Nandigama were sizzling. According to Indian Meteorological Department records, Ramagundam temperature reached up to 46.1ºC, while Nizamabad recorded 45.1ºC. While the temperatures in AP were also in the same region, the extent of rise over normal temperatures was massive.

TS revenue department principal secretary B.R. Meena said, “The latest death toll is 128. What happened was earlier there were lot of missing cases and the causes of deaths had to be ascertained.”

Severe heatwave likely till Monday

The IMD on Saturday once again updated its heatwave warning extending it till Monday in both TS and AP. Severe heatwave conditions are expected to continue till Monday, as per IMD, in nine districts of AP and all 10 districts of TS. This is the third time the warning has been issued. But meteorologists also suggest that relief wouldn’t be immediate and higher temperatures hovering around 40°C would continue until the onset of monsoon, expected sometime in the first week of June.

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“Heat spells are normal during the pre-monsoon season in April, May and June. But this time the heat wave is continuing for a longer period. There is no activity in the Bay of Bengal as well for some reason. If there is some low pressure system, rains can be expected and mercury levels will fall,” IMD meteorologist M. Narsimha Rao said.

This is particularly disconcerting since May and June are months of low pressure and cyclone activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. IMD witnessed formation of some cumulonimbus clouds over the Shamshabad region and Mahbubnagar district of TS but no rain was reported.