Heatwave season checks out of city
New Delhi: With the monsoon expected to reach the city within the next four days, the heatwave season has officially come to an end. This year, Safdarjung — Delhi's base weather station — recorded only three heatwave days, all in April.
However, some parts of the city experienced up to nine heatwaves in April and June.
Last year, Safdarjung recorded 14 heatwave days in the summer. Regular spells of rain and thunderstorms this year helped keep temperatures in check.
"Heatwave conditions are unlikely now. In this season, only two spells of heatwaves were recorded as showers and thunderstorms led to excess rainfall in north-west India in May," said Krishna Kumar Mishra, scientist,
India Meteorological Department
.
The first streak of heatwave was recorded from April 6 to 10 and Safdarjung reeled under three such days. May was relatively better due to frequent rain and thunderstorms interventions, which prevented the mercury from rising above normal. The second spell of heatwave lasted from June 9 to 12. While on June 9, Ayanagar station met the heatwave criteria, Ayanagar, Lodhi Road and Ridge experienced heatwave conditions on June 10.
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Ayanagar again logged heatwave conditions on June 11 but June 12, only one station — Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi — reported heatwave conditions.
Heatwaves are mostly recorded from the second week of April to mid-June. Of the 14 heatwaves recorded last year, six consecutive days were reported from May 26 to 31. Eight additional days were witnessed in June. Though Safdarjung did not record a single heatwave in 2023, the summer of 2022 saw 13 heatwave days, including nine in April and four in May, according to IMD.
Explaining the reason behind Delhi not recording any heatwave in May this time, Mishra said, "There were frequent western disturbances across northwest India, lower-level easterlies from the Bay of Bengal and lower-level south-westerlies from the Arabian Sea in May. Due to these three components, Delhi saw more than normal episodes of rain accompanied by thunderstorms in May."
In May, Safdarjung logged 186.4mm of rainfall, an excess of 507%.
Even before the arrival of the monsoon, June so far has already recorded excess rainfall at 87.8mm against the normal average for the month of 74.1mm.
IMD defines a heatwave day as one when the maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees and more above normal temperature and the maximum is at least 40 degrees Celsius or if the maximum temperature touches 45 degrees Celsius or above. A 'severe' heatwave is when the maximum is 6.5 degrees and more above normal.
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