India recorded its first widespread heatwave of the year on Wednesday, with extreme conditions sweeping through Gujarat’s Saurashtra and Kutch region, as experts warned that the shrinking period between winter and summer is becoming a pattern driven by climate change.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said heatwave to severe heatwave prevailed at many places over Saurashtra and Kutch and at a few places over Gujarat region, while isolated heatwave conditions were reported over Vidarbha. Although isolated heatwave conditions were reported from Vidarbha earlier this month, Wednesday saw the first episode of widespread heat over the western parts of the country.
An anticyclone over Rajasthan is pushing dry, hot winds towards Gujarat, causing air to descend over the region, said Mahesh Palawat, Vice President of Climate and Meteorology at Skymet Weather. He added that the pattern has become repetitive. “We saw this happening in the latter part of March in some parts of western India.”
What’s most surprising is the disappearance of the spring, Palawat said. “It’s almost over. The transition from winter to summer is very fast,” he said, noting a clear trend in recent years.
Maximum temperatures ranged between 38-42°C at many places over Gujarat, western Rajasthan and Vidarbha, at a few places over Madhya Pradesh and Marathwada, and at isolated places over Chhattisgarh and Odisha. In Delhi, maximum temperatures ranged between 35-38 degrees Celsius. Daytime temperatures were significantly higher than normal – above average by more than 5.1 degrees Celsius – in most places in Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, western Rajasthan and eastern Rajasthan, and in many places in Punjab, Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch. Temperatures were significantly higher than normal – by 3.1°C to 5.0°C – in many places over the sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal and Sikkim, and in a few places over Madhya Maharashtra and coastal Karnataka.
“Such heatwaves in March are normal and we had expected them in advance,” said M Mohapatra, Director General of IMD. The Meteorological Department said that heatwave to severe heatwave is likely to continue over Gujarat till March 13, while isolated heavy rain is expected over Arunachal Pradesh during March 12-14 and over Assam and Meghalaya during March 13-15.
The IMD defines a heat wave when the maximum temperature reaches 45 degrees Celsius in the plains or when the daytime temperature exceeds the normal range by 4.5 degrees Celsius.
The early onset of the heat wave has significant impacts on India’s energy infrastructure. Experts said the heat this summer could be as extreme as or worse than 2024, which was the warmest year on record for India and the world, and energy demand is expected to exceed last year’s levels.
These forecasts carry significance at a time when India’s energy imports – the country relies on external suppliers to meet 85% of its oil and gas needs – have been hit by the conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel. An official at the Ministry of Petroleum and Gas said on Wednesday that 25% of the current gas needs have been exhausted.
Grid India’s short-term resource adequacy assessment for 2026-27 expects demand to peak at more than 260 GW between April and June. “We reached 250 gigawatts in May 2024. This year it is expected to be 267 to 280 gigawatts in the months of April to June. So yes, we expect to exceed this record,” said Disha Agrawal, senior program officer at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), speaking at a workshop on the challenges of extreme heat and growing energy and water demand. She was referring to India Network forecasts.
The Grid India report identifies the summer and early monsoon months – April to July 2026 – as the most critical period for system adequacy, driven by high demand, low surplus margins, and high incidences of forced outages. The report states that during this period, the minimum surplus remains close to zero, especially during non-solar hours, indicating a limited operational buffer once solar generation is no longer available. Here lies the importance of electricity generated from gas, although it represents a small part in general. Gas-based generation contributes primarily as a peak and balance resource, with transmission concentrated during non-solar hours.
