Eastern Europe and western Russia will experience further unreasonable warmth in the next few days after last week’s record highs. A warm outbreak in mid-spring began in mid-week, when temperatures rose to 20’s Celsius in eastern Germany and eastern Poland. By Friday, the highest temperature in the northern coastal town of BA in Poland was 29.6C (84.2F), 20 degrees Celsius above the town’s April average.
By the end of the weekend, heat had spread eastward into the Baltic Sea and western Russia, bringing record temperatures during the day and overnight. In Lithuania, four stations climbed above 29°C on Friday, crushing the country’s highest temperature record in April 23.1c, setting 66 years ago in 1959. Nearby Latvia and Estonia also set new national April temperature records late last week, recording the highest temperatures of 28.4c and 28.8c respectively.
While there is a slight cooling trend over the weekend, extensive high-pressure areas centered on Russia may continue to be above average temperatures for most of the week. Belarus and western Russia, including Moscow, are expected to have seasonal averages of 10-15°C higher than the seasonal average by this week.
However, fate may be reversed by the weekend. With the establishment of high pressure in Northwest Europe, cold air from the north is expected to sweep into the area. Some predictive models suggest that daytime temperatures in Moscow may struggle to reach double digits, and their values may be below the average level of 5-10c.
After a brief probation in some parts of the heatwave conditions experienced earlier this month, the sultry conditions will return to parts of the northwest and central India, with thunderstorms and rainfall in the coming days. Later this week, temperatures of about 45 degrees Celsius to 5-10 degrees Celsius are expected to rise on seasonal averages in parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, while the Indian Meteorological Department issued a new heat wave warning.
Although recent thunderstorms have brought temporary relief in areas such as Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, the impact is expected to disappear quickly as the heat and dry winds increase. In India’s monsoon season, which usually spans May, the development of thunderstorms helps alleviate the rise in temperatures. But when thunderstorm activity decreases, as it happened most of the time in parts of India this April, temperatures can gradually rise, bringing heatwave conditions.
Health officials have recommended preventive measures to avoid heat-related illnesses, especially during peak afternoons, as things are expected to worsen in the coming days.
