As Tripura continuous witnessing the scorching heat with dry spell in the pre-norwester season, specially hot and humid weather condition for last 17 days, which has made life miserable in the state and after announcement of seven days closure of all the government and government-aided schools, the Weather department on Tuesday announced a hope of respite and predicted heavy rainfall in most of the districts of Tripura.

The mercury hovered around 39 degrees Celsius in large parts of the state on Tuesday, the IMD at Agartala has predicted heat wave conditions in few districts for the next two days , but there are predictions of heavy rainfall and thundershower at most  of the districts on May 1st and 2nd next.

As Tripura is reeling under intense heat along with other parts of the region, giving details of next three days weather prediction, the Director of IMD, Agartala station, Dr Partha Roy(Scientist-C) said that the hot and humid weather condition to continue to Sepahijala, Gomati and South Tripura district on May 1st.

In the present summer season, Tripura has recorded maximum temperatures of 38.4 37.6 degrees Celsius, which is 0.9 degrees Celsius less compared to highest temperatures of April in last year, said Dr Partha Roy.

He said that thunderstorm with lightning and gusty wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph and heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at isolated places over North, Unakoti and Dhalai districts and thunderstorm with lightning and gusty wind speed reaching 30 to 40 kmph is very likely to occur at isolated places over rest districts of Tripura, said Dr Roy.

He said that from Wednesday, the West Tripura and Gomati districts will receive heavy rainfall and people of the capital city will get respite from scorching heat, said the director of IMD, Agartala station.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) sources said that the cloudy weather and light rain may provide some relief from the heat in Tripura on Thursday and Friday next.

Earlier this month, the MET office predicted above-normal maximum temperatures for most parts of the country from April to June, except parts of the northwest and the peninsular regions.

The day temperatures decrease by a few notches at 38 degrees Celsius in Agartala, which is higher than normal temperature at this time of the year.  Similarly, other parts of the state also witnessed scorching heat during the past fortnight. The city remained hottest on Tuesday  with relative humidity at about 95 percent and recorded a minimum temperature of 28.1 degrees Celsius with minimum departure of plus 5.4 degrees Celsius.

 As Tripura reels under intense heat wave and mercury touching recorded high temperatures during past fortnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), in a bulletin, said that due to prevailing northwesterly and westerly dry hot air and high solar insolation, maximum temperature (in day time) is expected to be in the range of 37 degrees Celsius across Tripura Wednesday and fall slightly thereafter.

Sales of various drinks including cold drinks and ice cream have risen sharply, with local vendors doing brisk business. The long dry weather has also led to water sources drying up resulting in a drinking water crisis in hilly, remote rural areas. Besides, the drying up of water sources has caused problems for farmers in cultivating summer crops in the state. While, reports said that as the state's power demand rises in the peak hours during the past few weeks, many parts of the state have also witnessed frequent load-shedding and power cuts. Few areas of Agartala have also witnessed power cuts for a short period during the past few days.

The weather officials also noted that the minimum temperature in many places hovered between 25 to 28 degrees Celsius  3-4 notches above the season's average.