40 degrees in February: The Indian summer is here with record temperatures, heatwave in tow

A climatologist and weather historian has predicted that a record heat wave will hit India this year with unprecedented temperature levels recorded this time of the year. On February 16, temperatures in Gujarat’s Bhuj rose to 40.3 Celsius – a new monthly record, Maximiliano Herrera tweeted from his account called “Extreme Temperatures Around the World”.

70km from Bhuj is Kandla that too recorded 38.1 degrees on February 16 - another monthly record. Herrera predicted that the next days it will get worse and worse and dozens of heat-related records will be smashed in India and Pakistan.

Accuweather.com has also predicted temperatures soaring to 40 degrees on multiple days in February for Bhuj. The India Meteorological Department has however predicted a high of 39 degrees for Bhuj in the coming days.
One Twitter account, “Vagaries of the Weather”, joined Herrera in the India heatwave conversation and said: “The previous high for Bhuj in February was 38.9C on 28th February 1953. Now, as per Vagaries' records, this also becomes the earliest date ever for any Indian Station (IMD Manual observatory) to touch 40C. Previous earliest was 20th February, at Bhubaneshwar in 2016.”

Herrera responded too predicting that it will just get worse.

“According to Indian climatologist Rajesh Kapadia, the 40C set today in India is the earliest ever seen in India and it also the earliest ever in the whole Asia together with 16 February 2016 at Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Historic. And it will just get worse than this,” Herrera wrote.