West Bengal Forced to Announce Early Summer Break For Schools in Wake of Heatwave Conditions

Kolkata: West Bengal government declared an early summer break for state-run schools from April 22 in wake of extreme heatwave conditions. The break was scheduled to commence on May 5.

A government order said, “...summer vacation in schools...with effect from April 22 except for the schools of the hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, where in existing academic scheduled may continue until further order.”

The announcement came after a day before Panagarh in West Burdwan district recorded the highest temperature (42.5 degrees Celsius) in the state. India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that more districts in south Bengal are expected to experience heatwaves over next two or three days. 

Day temperatures have been above 40°C in places such as Dum Dum, Midnapore, Bankura, Salt Lake, Canning, Kalikunda, Burdwan, Asansol, Purulia, Jhargram, and Balurghat. On Wednesday, the maximum temperature in Kolkata hovered around 39.4°C, 3.8°C above normal, for the second day.

IMD has predicted light to moderate rainfall on the day of voting in north Bengal districts of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, and Cooch Behar on Friday in teh first phase of Lok Sabha polls. 

On Tuesday, IMD said mainly dry westerly to north-westerly wind at lower levels were likely in the region. “...due to strong solar insolation, heat wave condition, and hot and discomfort weather are likely in the districts of south Bengal till April 20,” said an IMD statement.
 

South Bengal districts such as East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Birbhum, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas are likley to experience heatwave conditions over the next few days.