NEW DELHI: Strong winds barrelled through Delhi in the morning and a brief spell of light rain in a few areas provided a little relief to residents from the heat in the national capital region on Wednesday.
Five flights were diverted from Delhi to Jaipur between 3 am and 5:30 pm due to strong winds, an official at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport said.
Delhi’s primary weather station, the Safdarjung Observatory, registered a minimum temperature
of 23.6 degrees Celsius, two notches higher than normal. The maximum temperature settled at around 38 degrees Celsius. Delhi had recorded a maximum temperature of 40.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. This was the fourth consecutive day that the maximum temperature settled above 40 degrees Celsius here.
Parts of the capital reeled under heatwave conditions for the third consecutive day on Tuesday. The threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, at least 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas, and at least 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius.
Earlier this month, the MeT office predicted above-normal maximum temperatures for most parts of the country from April to June, except parts of the northwest and the peninsular regions. Above-normal heatwave days are expected in most parts of central, east, and northwest India during this period.
In 2022, Delhi recorded its second hottest April since 1951 with a monthly average maximum temperature of 40.2 degrees Celsius. The city saw nine heatwave days in April last year, including four in the first 10 days, which was the maximum in the month since 2010.
What’s a heatwave
The threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius