A viral message claimed that India's Directorate General of Civil Defence (DGCD), in coordination with the IMD, issued an official high alert warning of temperatures between 45°C and 55°C across India. Two independent fact-checking organisations — BOOM Fact Check and FACTLY — investigated the claim and confirmed no such advisory exists. An IMD official directly on record denied the alert was ever issued.
The 55°C upper bound is a scientific red flag: India's all-time recorded temperature high is approximately 51°C, making a national forecast of 55°C physically implausible. Actual IMD forecasts describe temperature anomalies in degrees above normal (e.g., +3.1°C to +5.0°C above seasonal averages), not absolute projections reaching 55°C. The official IMD press releases from April 2026 reference gradual temperature increases of 6–10°C in specific regions — consistent with seasonal norms, not an emergency ceiling of 55°C.
Fact-checkers also identified this as a recurring hoax: the same message was first debunked in 2025 and was later repackaged with updated dates. No Civil Defence document matching the viral message has been located in any official government archive or press release database.