NEW DELHI: For the ninth continuous day, some parts of the city reeled under heat wave on Saturday with the mercury settling above 46 degrees Celsius at many weather stations. The weather department has forecast relief over the coming week, which is likely to see good pre-monsoon activity. The time period from April-June this year saw ‘prolonged’ heat wave episodes owing to extremely dry and hot winds blowing over the northwest region, said India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials. On Saturday, Safdarjung, Delhi’s base station, recorded a maximum temperature of 43.8 degrees C, four notches above normal. Heat waves were recorded at — Mungeshpur (46.7 degrees C), Najafgarh (46.3 degrees C), Pitampura (46.1 degrees C) and Ridge (44.9 degrees C).
According to the IMD scientists, Delhi has seen prolonged heat waves owing to an increase in dry and warm westerly winds from Pakistan, making the areas of northwest and central India further warm and dry.
“The absence of frequent and strong western disturbances during April and a minimum of two of them in May, which did bring relief towards the end of the month, were the major reasons for the prolonged heat wave pattern,” said Jenamani. He added that after April, the last spell of such a severe heat wave was seen during May 18-20. Thereafter, there was no heat wave spell observed during May 21-31, as easterly winds were seen across northern parts of India at lower levels.
The impact of easterly winds at lower levels decreased giving way to dry and warm westerly winds from Pakistan, heating up the northwest region from May 31 to June 2. “Maximum temperature increased mainly due to warm air advection and a fresh spell of heat wave developed covering isolated pockets of northwest Rajasthan and then further spreading to the north including in some parts of the city,” he said.
A Western Disturbance is likely from June 14-15 onwards which will most probably induce pre-monsoon showers. Usually, the monsoon hits Delhi around June 27.