The Tripura government has once again extended the holiday in all schools across the state for three more days till May 1 due to the ongoing heat wave with dry spell in the pre-Norwester season, which has made life miserable and compelled the state government to announce the closure of all the government and government-aided schools in the state from Monday.

Earlier, the government declared the closure of all the schools - government, government-aided, and privately managed ones - from April 23 to 28 due to the scorching heat in the state.

The Additional Secretary, Education (School) department of Tripura government, N C Sharma said that as the heat wave continues, it has been decided that all schools will remain shut from April 29 to May 1. All the District Education Officers (DEOs) were requested to convey the decision to the schools under their jurisdiction and schools under TTAADC and privately managed will remain also closed for three more days from April 29 to May 1st.

The decision of the government is highly appreciated by parents who were demanding an early summer vacation for their children.

The heat wave across the state may cause a bad impact on the health of the students. In this view, the state government has decided to keep all the government run and grant-in-aid schools closed with effect from April 29 to May 1st, 2024.

While, sources said that some renowned private schools of the state including Holy Cross School, Agartala and others have also decided to shut their schools for next 3 days as advised by the state government and will start their online classes in the same period.

On Sunday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials in Agartala said that maximum temperatures in many places have been varying between 38 to 40 degrees Celsius, which is 4-5 degrees above average for this time of the season and IMD.

According to the IMD, the heat wave will continue for the next few days in Tripura and temperatures will go up to 39 degrees Celsius on Monday, which will be the highest in the state in the present summer season.

Agartala on Sunday recorded a temperature at 37.6 degrees Celsius which is at least 4.3 degrees higher than normal temperature level at this time of the year.  Similarly, other parts of the state also witnessed scorching heat during the past one week.

Sweltering heat wave has been sweeping the state throughout March-April till today. The city remained hottest today with relative humidity at about 95 percent and recorded a maximum temperature of 37.6 degrees Celsius and minimum recorded temperature of 28.2 degrees Celsius with minimum departure of plus 5.5 degrees Celsius.

There will be no respite from the prevailing hot and humid condition as the mercury will continue to stay at an average of 37 to 38 degrees Celsius during the next three days, said IMD and added that rain and thundershowers are likely to occur on May 2 and 3, he added.

Reports from other sub divisional towns of the state said that scorching heat has also made life miserable as day temperature crossed above 37 degrees Celsius and it has touched the above 38 degrees Celsius in the last week.

The weather officials also noted that the minimum temperature in many places hovered between 25 to 27 degrees Celsius -- 2-3 notches above the season's average.

The IMD official said that the maximum temperatures are likely to remain the same for the next 2-3 days and there are very less chances of rain to respite from scorching heat.

But, IMD predicted that hot and humid weather conditions are very likely to prevail at many places over the districts of Tripura. Thunderstorms with lightning and gusty wind speed reaching 40-50 KMPH are very likely to occur at isolated places over the rest districts of Tripura.