After severe thermal distress, Delhi's weather does a quick flip from feels-like 50°C to hailstorm

Time of India

22-05-2025

NEW DELHI: As Wednesday wore on, there was severe thermal distress, with the heat index or the feels-like temperatures reaching 50.2 degrees Celsius at noon. There was a big surprise late in the evening, however, when dust-laden winds approaching 79kmph brought heavy rainfall and hailstorm in various areas in the city.
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But the respite wasn't without its own distress: two people were killed, over 50 trees uprooted or damaged and motorists faced a harrowing time due to traffic gridlocks.
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Delhi's Connaught place: 8:30 pm
The extreme weather condition, which started around 8pm, was due to a southward-moving convection. It lasted less than an hour, but in that hour Safdarjung, the base weather station, recorded 12.1mm of rainfall, Mayur Vihar 13.5mm, Pitampura 5mm and Palam, 2.1mm.
"There was a cyclonic circulation over Haryana embedded in an east-west trough from Punjab to Bangladesh in lower tropospheric levels," said Krishna Mishra, scientist,
. "It was sucking moisture from both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, leading to the formation of convection clouds, which moved southwards."
IMD had issued a yellow alert in expectation of strong gusts and thunderstorms, but till darkness fell, the city remained nastily hot and humid.
The wind reached speeds of 79kmph at Safdarjung, 78kmph at Pragati Maidan, 74kmph at Palam, 65kmph at Pitampura, 63kmph at Delhi University, 56kmph at Lodhi Road, 50kmph at Najafgarh and 43kmph at Jafarpur.
Two people were killed. At Nizamuddin, a man with disabilities died when a light mast fell on his tricycle, while at Gokalpuri, a man died when a tree fell on him. Due to the squalls, the fire service received at least 25 calls of fallen or damaged trees till 9pm.
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Similarly, NDMC received around 25 complaints about fallen trees from Mahadev Road, Sansad Marg, Teen Murti Marg and Satya Marg, among others. Many cars were reported to have been damaged too.
As usual, both road and air traffic were affected by the squall. At least 10 flights were diverted to Jaipur and Mumbai, while over 50 flights were delayed. Delhi Metro services were also impacted due to external objects falling on the track on the Red, Yellow and Pink corridors.
Services on the Pink Line were restored by 9.30pm, and the other a little later. Power supply was also disrupted in large parts of the city.
The intense rain spell and hailstorm led to a sudden fall in temperature by up to 14 degrees Celsius. The temperature at 7.30pm read 37 degrees Celsius, but an hour later, the mercury had fallen to 23 degrees.
The weatherman, however, hasn't predicted a respite, with both temperatures and humidity set to increase in the next few days.
The feels-like temperature reached 50.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday against 49.6 degrees Celsius the previous day. The heat index on Monday was 48.5 degrees Celsius, and on Sunday, 43.6 degrees.
Due to the sweltering heat, power demands peaked on Wednesday. According to the State Load Dispatch Centre, the city's peak power demand on the day clocked 7,748 MW at 3.29pm, the highest for the season so far. A day earlier, the capital had seen a double power surge, with peak demand first touching 7,401 MW at 3.11in the afternoon and then rising further to 7,533 MW at 10.54pm.
Such an unusual power surge last took place on June 19, 2025, when the peak power demand touched 8,656 MW. Power discoms estimate demand to touch 9,000 MW this season given the generally elevated temperatures and humidity being seen these days.
According to the IMD, which had issued an alert for hot and humid conditions for May 22 and 23, a high heat index occurs when the maximum temperature remains 3 degrees Celsius above normal along with above-normal humidity.
High temperatures with humidity lead to extreme heat and discomfort outdoors, further causing distress and dehydration, thus impacting health. As the discomfort is high, experts suggest some preventive measures to avoid ailments.
On Wednesday, the maximum temperature was 40.7 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal, though slightly reduced from the 41.8 degrees of Tuesday. The minimum temperature was 30.2 degrees Celsius, which was the highest this month, against 28.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
The humidity oscillated between 42% and 68%, which was slightly lower than a day earlier yet uncomfortable. IMD has issued a yellow alert for hot and humid conditions till Friday.
On Thursday, Delhi's maximum is likely to hover between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the capital's air quality remained in the 'poor' category, deteriorating marginally from Tuesday. This prompted the Commission for Air Quality Management to impose Stage I measures of the Graded Response Action Plan against pollution.
Stage I has 27 action points consisting of pre-emptive measures to reduce pollution and prevent it from rising further. The measures include using anti-smog guns, mechanised sweeping of roads and regular lifting of solid waste, among others.
Ozone and coarser PM10 were the primary pollutants in the city's air on the day. The air quality index (AQI), on a scale of 0 to 500, was 213 against 204 ('poor') a day earlier. The air quality is likely to remain at the 'poor' level due to variable winds over the next few days.