Northeast sizzles, Tripura capital records hottest May day

GUWAHATI: The northeast has been reeling under the scorching heat, with Tripura capital Agartala touching the highest May temperature — 39.8 degrees Celsius — in over 40 years, while several towns and cities in Assam and Meghalaya sizzled as the mercury soared four degrees above normal on Monday.
The last time Agartala had recorded 39.8 degrees Celsius was on May 31, 1979.
The heat swept the neighbouring southern Assam town of Silchar, which recorded a maximum temperature of 37.1 degrees Celsius on Monday, the highest in Assam during the day.
Temperature varied across Assam, with Guwahati recording a maximum temperature of 32.2 degrees Celsius, while the corresponding figure in Dibrugarh stood at 26.1 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature recorded in various important towns and cities in Assam on Monday were Tezpur (30.4), Dhubri (34.3), Jorhat (28.6) and North Lakhimpur (28.0).
In Assam, Silchar recorded maximum departure above normal at 5.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Dhubri where it was 4.4 above normal. Shillong was cooler with the maximum temperature touching 27.3 degrees Celsius on Monday, but incidentally it was 4.3 degrees above normal. But the maximum temperature in Imphal was 34.1 degrees Celsius, 5.9 degrees above normal. Two other state capitals, Itanagar and Kohima, recorded the maximum temperatures of 29.2 and 26.5 degrees Celsius respectively on Monday.
The IMD on Monday said in the last 24 hours, light to moderate rain occurred at many places over Arunachal Pradesh and at a few places over Assam. While light rain occurred at isolated places over Meghalaya and Nagaland, dry weather prevailed in Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during the period. he Met office warned that thunderstorms and lightning is very likely to occur at isolated places over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on Tuesday.