Heat Wave: IMD Launches Heat Index Sowing 'Real Feel' Temperatures
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has started issuing heat indexes for different parts of the country. The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like.
It is not uncommon for us to feel colder or hotter than what the weather forecast says the temperature is at that time.
That is because the 'real feel' could be different from what is shown as the current temperature.
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IMD launches heat index
At a time when parts of India are still reeling under a heat wave, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has started issuing heat indexes for different parts of the country on an experimental basis.
The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature.
The IMD launched its heat index along with the temperature on an experimental basis on Friday.
The heat index will be issued for the entire country every day in weather bulletins.
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How heat index work
In addition to giving the day's minimum and maximum temperatures, the heat index, mainly for the plains, will give people "a sense of what the temperature actually feels like".
¡°Along with temperatures, the index takes into account humidity levels of a given place to give an equivalent ¡®feels like¡¯ temperature range,¡± IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
"We are utilising the temperature and humidity data at 2:30 pm for the heat index and the forecasts as the maximum temperature occurs at that time," he added.
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Not validated in India conditions
Currently, the weather office uses a formula of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to calculate the heat index.
However, the heat index is yet to be validated for Indian conditions and uses the comfort levels of weather experienced by Americans in their regions.
The heat index issued by the IMD on Friday carried a disclaimer stating "not validated for India", making it clear that it was an experimental forecast to educate people about the implications of heat on them.
Heat wave in Easter India in May
The IMD on Friday said that parts of eastern India, including Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, are likely to face above-normal temperatures in May with a likelihood of heat wave conditions on some days.
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Parts of northwest and west-central India may experience warmer nights and below-normal temperatures during the day, the IMD said in the monthly outlook for temperature and rainfall for May.
It said normal to above-normal rainfall is expected in the northwest and west central parts of the country in May, including in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. Large swathes of the northeastern region, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and south Karnataka, are expected to witness below-normal rains.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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