Overview
- IMD issued an orange alert for Gujarat, with severe heatwave conditions focused on Saurashtra–Kutch through March 13 and highs around 42°C reported at several locations.
- After hitting 40°C at Santacruz on Tuesday—Mumbai’s hottest March day since 2021—the city’s alerts were downgraded to yellow and then green as temperatures dipped toward the mid‑30s.
- Delhi recorded the season’s high at 36.8°C and remained in the ‘poor’ air quality category (AQI 244), with IMD indicating light rain and cooler highs near 30–33°C by March 17.
- IMD attributes the spike to an anticyclonic circulation driving dry easterlies that delayed sea breezes, and it warned of warm nights in parts of Gujarat that can intensify heat stress.
- Rain and thunderstorms linked to a western disturbance are forecast for northwest states from March 14, bringing gradual relief even as isolated heat persists in pockets such as Vidarbha in the near term.