Published On : Thu, Mar 30th, 2017

Which is hotter – Bhira or Akola during this hellish summer?

Advertisement


Nagpur:
Bhira, a small town of Maharashtra had already gone over 46* yesterday – it was 46.5 already!

Akola in Vidarbha was 43 * – yet the MET people believe Akola was the hottest place in the state yesterday.

Why so? This is what they say:

At Bhira in Raigadh, the temperature mapping centre recorded a high of 46.5 degrees Celsius for the 24 hours ending at 8 am today, but IMD officials said they would like to verify the findings.

“When the temperature (at Bhira) was reported to be 46.5 degree Celsius, we realised that something is wrong as no other place nearby recorded so high a temperature,” S G Kamble, divisional In charge of Regional Meteorological Department, Colaba in Mumbai, said.

“Bhira village is located in the Sahyadri mountains and is close to a dam. The mountains are covered with forest. The height of the mountains around Bhira would be minimum 2,000 feet. In such a situation, if the mapping centre shows 46.5 degree, it should be doubted,” he said.

Those doing the temperature mapping at Bhira are not the employees of IMD but trained by it, he said. A team of IMD officials will now verify the findings.

With Bhira doubtful, an IMD official said that Akola was, according to them, the hottest place in the country today. Wardha, Nagpur and Chandrapur recorded 43 degree Celsius.

Akola, also in Vidarbha, recorded 44.1 degree Celsius.

There is going to be not much respite from this heat wave.

The onset of Heat wave conditions are very likely to prevail at many places over West Madhya Pradesh, few places over East Madhya Pradesh and at isolated places over Chhattisgarh. Which pretty much is all area flanking Nagpur, though MET has not mentioned Maharashtra.

But don’t lose hope. The heat wave may also bring in its wake sporadic rains over the coming weekend.