NEW DELHI: Delhi residents on Thursday woke up to a surprising sight on May 4: a blanket of fog covering the city. Going by the data shared by the IMD, May 4 witnessed the coldest day after 1982 with a minimum temperature of 15.8 degrees.
On May 2, 1982, the minimum temperature was 15.2 degrees and on May 2, 1969, the minimum temperature recorded was 15.1 degrees. Considering the fact that May is the hottest month of the year with a mean maximum temperature of 39.5 degrees, the spell of shadow fog was unusual in itself and elicited a range of surprised reactions from the residents who said that it was a winter-esque morning in the middle of the peak summer.
Wednesday (May 3) was Delhi’s wettest day of 2023 so far. Its Safdarjung station recorded 20.9 mm of moderate rainfall within nine hours on Thursday — the highest single-day precipitation for Delhi since it received 20.4 mm on January 30.
On the same day, Palam recorded at 11.8 mm, Lodhi Road 24.6 mm, Ridge area 14.6 mm, Ayanagar 13.8 mm, Mungeshpur 31.5 mm, Narela 9.5 mm, Pitampura 55.5 mm, and Mayur Vihar 8 mm. Overall, this rainfall episode also took Delhi’s rain figure for the month to 36 mm, helping it surpass May’s monthly average of 29.4 mm in just three days.
Furthermore, Thursday morning saw Delhiites wake up to thick winter-esque fog, which hampered visibility in many parts of the capital. Normally, such foggy conditions subside as soon as temperatures begin to rise around February-March.
The daytime temperatures remained well below 30 degrees for the opening two days — 25.4 degrees on May 1 and 26.7 degrees on May 2. On Wednesday, the mercury rose to 30.6 degrees but still remained 9 notches below the normal for this time of the year.