Heatwave across country to continue for next two days, subside gradually: IMD

Heatwave conditions are likely to continue over north Indian plains, central and south India for two more days and abate gradually, the IMD said Sunday.

"Due to easterly winds at lower levels over northern parts of the country, the severity of the heatwave is very likely to decrease over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and Uttar Pradesh from today (Sunday) onwards," it said.

Severe heat wave conditions are likely to persist over Madhya Pradesh and west Rajasthan on Monday, the IMD said with a red-coded colour warning for these two states.

The IMD has four colour codes to indicate the severe weather systems - red for extremely severe weather conditions, followed by amber, yellow and then green which denotes normalcy.

It also has an amber-coded warning for east Rajasthan and Vidarbha in Maharashtra and a yellow-colour coded warning for Marathwada, Surat and Kutch, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi for Monday.

Large parts of the country witnessed severe heatwave over the last week with temperatures even reaching 50 degrees Celsius in Rajasthan.

If the maximum temperature of a weather station in the plains crosses 45 degrees Celsius for two consecutive days, it is termed heatwave.

And it the temperature breaches 47 degrees Celsius for two days, it is termed severe heatwave.

If the temperature rises between 4.5-6.4 degrees Celsius above the normal, it is also termed heatwave.

If it goes beyond that, it is classified as a severe heatwave.