VIJAYAWADA: Mercury touched 45 degree Celsius at several places in the State on Saturday unleashing the fury of summer, confining people to indoors for most part of the day.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, the State is likely to sizzle due to severe heat wave conditions for the next three days. People have been asked not to venture out and take all precautions to protect themselves from scorching summer heat by remaining indoors.
As per the AP State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) report, the mercury levels hovered around 45 degree Celsius at 11 places in the State.
A suspected sunstroke death was reported in East Godavari district. K Veerraju (68), a groundnut vendor, collapsed and died after reaching home at Velangi village near Kakinada.
Severe heat wave conditions prevailed in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore and parts of East and West Godavari districts on Saturday.
According to the IMD report, Tuni and Kakinada in East Godavari, Bapatla in Guntur and Machilipatnam in Krishna district recorded the maximum temperature, which was 6 to 7.2 degree Celsius above normal. Moderate heat wave conditions prevailed in Vijayawada, Ongole, Kavali and Narasapur, where the maximum temperature was 3 to 5 degree Celsius above normal. Vijayawada city recorded 43.6 degree Celsius.
Speaking to TNIE, YK Reddy, Director of IMD, Hyderabad, said, “We are currently having northerly and westerly winds, which are hot in nature. The moisture and humidity levels decreased to a great extent due to the recent cyclone. Dry weather with heat wave conditions will prevail in the State due to decrease in moisture. This phenomenon will exist for 2-3 days.”
Heatwave warning
IMD has issued severe heat wave warning for Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore of South Coastal AP and moderate heat wave warning for East and West Godavari and North Coastal AP and Rayalaseema for the next three days
According to the APSDMA report, the maximum temperature of 45.77 degree Celsius was recorded at Seethanagaram in West Godavari district.
Apart from AP State Development Planning Society (APSDPS), the Real Time Governance Society (RTGS) is also alerting people on heat wave conditions through regular bulletins based on the satellite pictures and data furnished by ISRO.
The Andhra Pradesh Weather Forecasting and Early Warning Research Centre (AWARE), a division of RTGS, has predicted that the temperature hover between 43 and 46 degree Celsius at many places in the State in the coming days. However, there is a slight variation in the temperature recordings of these agencies. The variation is attributed to weather forecasting model
and number of weather stations.
Speaking to TNIE, Ramana Murthy of Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society said, “We have more number of weather observatories than the IMD and thus we get more accurate picture at the mandal level. As on date, we have 1,158 automatic weather stations across the State for recording temperature. APSDMA releases weather bulletins after analysing our temperature recordings.”
IMD Director Reddy said, “We have 18 manual and 30 automatic weather stations. At our manual weather stations, the temperature is recorded with utmost care. We do not rely more on AWS as they tend to breakdown or stop monitoring weather conditions. As a result, there will be a variation between the temperatures recorded by the IMD and State agencies.”