A man shields a child with an umbrella from the scorching heat during an afternoon heatwave, at Charminar, in Hyderabad
| Photo Credit: PTI
Several parts of the country experienced many days of maximum heat, breaching 40 degrees Celsius last month. While this in itself is enough to make one sweat, literally and figuratively, a deeper look at last month’s weather pattern tells an interesting story — while maximum temperatures are getting warmer across the country, minimum temperatures are heating up relatively faster in many places. Across large parts of central and western India, the daily maximum temperatures were close to or even below the normal expected temperatures of those areas.The “normal” here refers to IMD’s long-term baseline, which is the average April temperatures recorded at each station between 1991 and 2020. This 30-year reference period is the standard currently used by both the IMD and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). So, when a station shows below-normal temperatures, it means April 2026 was cooler than that location’s April average, even if absolute temperatures were still high. Published - May 20, 2026 08:00 am IST
