Mercury has been soaring high over the capital city of Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. Maximum temperature scaled to 43°C for the second consecutive day at Ahmedabad, the highest being 43.3°C, recorded on 07th May. Temperature is expected to rise further and inch closer to 45°C, around mid-week next. The heat wave is likely to intensify and also spread to large pockets of the state. Currently, Ahmedabad, Surendranagar, Mehsana and Palanpur are the hottest regions of the state. Leave aside the coastal stations, Saurashtra & Kutch are next to this, catching up with the heat. Rajkot and Amreli has breached 42°C and Bhuj had earlier exceeded 43°C on 07th May.
There is feeble cyclonic circulation over the sea, off the Saurashtra coast. This is pumping warm and moist winds over Saurashtra and central Gujarat. Circulation is likely to be replaced by an anticyclone over north and northeast Arabian Sea. Winds will travel from the Sind region of Pakistan and penetrate deep into the central and northern parts of the state, including Ahmedabad. Sind province has been the hottest of all, at the moment with temperature reaching 47.8°C in Nawabshah and 47°C in Jacobabad.
The state of Gujarat in general and the city of Ahmedabad, in particular, remain far from the reach of weather systems affecting North India. The entire pre-monsoon season is literally burning hot, for the state, excluding the coastline which is, otherwise oppressive with sultry conditions. It is only the reversal in the wind pattern, which induces change in the degree of heat and humidity. Significant relief is nowhere on the horizon. The arrival of the monsoon, sometime in mid-June, is the only solution to mitigate the heat.
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