West Bengal: IMD issues heat wave alert for South Bengal

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 1 : The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued a heat wave alert for South Bengal from April 1-5.
"Due to the prevailing mainly dry westerly wind over the region, heat wave conditions / hot & discomfort weather is very likely to occur over the districts of South Bengal during April 1 - 5," the IMD Kolkata said.
As per the IMD, day temperature (maximum temperature) is very likely to rise by 2-4 degress Celsius over the districts of South Bengal during the next 3 days and the maximum temperature is going to be above normal by 4-5 degrees Celsius over the western districts of South Bengal during April 3rd to 5th, the IMD said.
Humid and uncomfortable weather is likely to prevail over the districts of South Bengal on April 1 and 2, it said.
Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail at one or two places over Purulia, Bankura, West Burdwan, West Midnapore, and Jhargram districts of South Bengal from April 3rd-5th, IMD said.
As per the IMD, a heat wave is a condition of air temperature that becomes fatal to the human body when exposed. Quantitatively, it is defined based on the temperature thresholds over a region in terms of the actual temperature or its departure from normal. In certain countries, it is defined in terms of the heat index based on temperature and humidity or based on the extreme percentile of the temperatures.
The heat wave is considered if the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius or more for plains and at least 30 degrees or more for hilly regions, as per the IMD.