India's scorching hot weather to continue, even after record-high April temperatures

Parts of India recorded their highest average temperatures on record in April, and the scorching weather is expected to stretch into May, authorities said on Saturday.

India and neighbouring Pakistan have been suffering from extreme heat waves this year, melting pavement, forcing school closures and triggering health and fire alerts.

Northwest and central India recorded average maximum temperatures of 35.9 C and 37.78 C, respectively, in April, the director general of the Indian Meteorological Department told reporters.

Those were the highest since the department began keeping records 122 years ago, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

More than a billion people are at risk of heat-related impacts in the region, scientists have warned, linking the early onset of an intense summer to climate change. Summer in India runs from April to June.

For the first time in decades, Pakistan went from winter to summer without the spring season, Pakistan's federal minister for climate change, Sherry Rehman, said on Saturday.

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