Heat wave to continue for two days in north, central, south India, predicts IMD; red warning in Madhya Pradesh, west Rajasthan

New Delhi: Heat wave conditions are likely to continue over north Indian plains, central and south India for two more days and abate gradually, the IMD said Sunday. “Due to easterly winds at lower levels over northern parts of the country, the severity of the heat wave is very likely to decrease over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and Uttar Pradesh from today (Sunday) onwards,” it said. [caption id=“attachment_2792064” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty images[/caption] Severe heat wave conditions are likely to persist over Madhya Pradesh and west Rajasthan on Monday, the IMD said with a red-coded colour warning for these two states. The IMD has four colour codes to indicate the severity weather systems – red for extremely severe weather conditions, followed by amber, yellow and then green which denotes normalcy. It also has an amber-coded warning for east Rajasthan and Vidarbha in Maharashtra and a yellow-colour coded warning for Marathwada, Surat and Kutch, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi for Monday. Large parts of the country witnessed severe heat wave over the last week with temperatures even reaching 50 degrees Celsius in Rajasthan. If the maximum temperature of a weather station in the plains crosses 45 degrees Celsius for two consecutive days, it is termed heat wave. And it the temperature breaches 47 degrees Celsius for two days, it is termed severe heat wave. If the temperature rises between 4.5-6.4 degrees Celsius above the normal, it is also termed heat wave. If it goes beyond that, it is classified as severe heat wave.