NAGPUR, June 13 -- The night offers no escape in Vidarbha. Minimum temperatures across the region have been running more than five degrees Celsius above normal for the past week, and the air that settles over Nagpur, Chandrapur and Brahmapuri after dark carries the stored heat of concrete and asphalt that never fully cools before the sun returns.

The India Meteorological Department extended its heatwave warning for Vidarbha through June 16, the longest active alert anywhere in the country. Isolated pockets of Marathwada and Telangana carry separate warnings through June 13, while western Rajasthan faces its own through the same date. The four regions together form a belt of extreme heat stretching across central India, from the Thar Dese...