3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 21, 2026 09:00 PM IST
Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district again emerged as the hottest in India, recording 47.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday as several states were battered by blistering heat.
The India Metrological Department (IMD) issued a ‘red alert’ for Uttar Pradesh over the next three days. The weather body expects the severity to slightly decrease over the next week and has issued an orange alert after tracking the possibility of high heatwave conditions and possible hotter night conditions at isolated places across the state over the next week.
A red warning is the highest level of weather alert, meaning “take action”.
What’s causing high temperatures?
The meteorological department of Lucknow has noted that several factors have combined to worsen the heat conditions across the state, such as an absence of any active weather system, enhanced radiational heating due to clear skies and dry weather, and the subsidence of hot winds associated with an anticyclone over central India in the middle tropospheric levels.
The IMD also mentioned that hot and humid western winds are likely to be over the south part of Uttar Pradesh with moist winds from the eastern side likely to enter the northern part of the state and some parts of Manipur too.
Earlier an orange alert was issued in Delhi, with the temperature likely to remain around 46 degree Celsius.
India’s heat map
On Wednesday, Banda district recorded the highest temperature in the country at 48 degrees Celsius, while Prayagraj registered 46.4 degrees Celsius, Hamirpur 46.2 degrees Celsius, and Jhansi 45.9 degrees Celsius. Several other districts, including Aligarh, Varanasi, and Hardoi also saw temperatures staying above 43 degrees Celsius.
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Dry heat has begun to take a toll on agricultural activity and commercial establishments across various districts of the state, PTI reported.
It is a different picture in other parts of the country.
IMD has forecast widespread rainfall in northeastern, eastern and peninsular India. States like Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura are bracing for scattered to widespread light to moderate rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms, the department mentioned on Thursday.
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura are likely to get rains for the next few days too.
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(Written by Paramita Datta, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
