LUCKNOW, May 20 -- Uttar Pradesh endured a relentless heatwave, with Banda recording a scorching 48.2 degrees Celsius on Tuesday to become the hottest city in the country for the third consecutive day. The maximum temperature in the district settled at 4.7 degrees above normal, following staggering highs of 47.6 degrees and 46.4 degrees over the previous two days. The Lucknow Meteorological Centre issued a severe heatwave red alert for May 20 and 21. The warning covers 11 districts across the state, including Banda, Chitrakoot, Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Mahoba, and Jhansi. "Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are very likely at many places over the southern part of the state and a few places over the remaining area during daytime," stated Mohd Danish, a senior scientist at the meteorological centre. He added that unusually warm nights are also expected at isolated locations, offering little respite from the daytime heat. The meteorological department warned that the likelihood of the current conditions escalating into a severe heatwave, characterized by the dry Loo winds, is high in 14 districts. These include Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Chandauli, Varanasi, Ballia, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur City, Rae Bareli, Auraiya, and Lalitpur. Weather across the state is expected to remain dry, accompanied by strong surface winds reaching speeds of 20 to 40 kmph. Western Uttar Pradesh is forecast to experience warm nights over the next 48 hours, which will likely be followed by an orange alert. Many cities in UP sizzled at over 40 degrees on Tuesday. These included Jhansi and Agra 46.5deg, Prayagraj 45.8deg, Orai 45.2deg, Kanpur IAF 44.8deg, Kanpur City 44deg, Meerut 43.6deg, Aligarh 43.4deg, Churk 43.2deg and Etawah 43deg. Lucknow's day and night temperatures were 40.9deg and 27.8deg, respectively. The maximum and minimum temperatures in Lucknow are likely to hover around 42 and 28 degrees, respectively....