NEW DELHI: The national capital recorded its hottest day of the year on Monday with the mercury soaring up to 40 degrees Celsius at most locations across the city. The weather officials issued a ‘yellow’ alert for the next two days as ‘severe’ heatwave conditions are likely to prevail across Delhi-NCR.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials, while the maximum temperature at Safdarjung was 39.1 degrees C, seven notches above normal for this time of the year, at other stations, the maximum temperature notched up to 40 degrees C with Narela being the hottest spot, recording 42 degrees Celsius. Over the coming days, the all-time record of highest maximum is at risk of being broken, said weather officials.
On March 20, mercury touched 39.9 degrees C at two locations which were the highest maximum temperatures this month until Monday’s readings. “We issued a ‘yellow’ alert as severe heatwave conditions are likely to prevail in the northwest region. People must avoid going outdoors unless necessary and long exposure to the sun,” said R K Jenamani, senior IMD official.
He added that these conditions are usually seen during mid-April or May, but because of no rainfall since February 25, hot and dry winds blowing across the region and extremely high temperatures in parts of Rajasthan, the city is reeling under unusually high temperatures at this time of the year.
“The sudden rise in temperature was because of strong winds spell. City was already seeing prolonged dry spell and such winds not only further dried up the air, but also cleaned up pollution resulting in maximum direct solar radiation heating at the surface,” said Jenamani.
Also winds from north Rajasthan where day temperature stands at of 41-42 degrees C are blowing across the city. A severe heatwave condition is described as one when the departure from normal temperature is above 6.4 degrees C or the maximum temperature is above 45 degrees C consecutively for two days at two stations at least, said officials.
