Delhi remains hot despite fall in temperature and thunderstorm forecast; high humidity keeps feels-like temperature at 50.3°C

Time of India

14 hours ago

NEW DELHI: Several areas of the city saw a fall in the maximum temperature by up to 6.1 degrees Celsius on Friday, but the heat and humidity left the people thirsting for a respite. With the 'feels like' temperature, or the heat index, at 50.3 degrees Celsius, the day was sweaty, hot and bothersome.
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On Thursday, the city saw the warmest day of the season with a heat index of 54.4 degrees Celsius. However, a change in the weather pattern led to the development of a trough line that infused moisture into the region, leading to thunder activity in a large part of north-west India and a fall in temperatures.
The weather scientists explained that there was also an active western disturbance, which would increase the possibility of prolonged thunder activity in the region, including parts of Delhi.
The winds also turned easterly from the earlier warm westerly in the entire north Rajasthan, including Jaipur, Delhi and in Punjab, including Amritsar and Ludhiana, which facilitated moisture influx from the Bay of Bengal to northwest India.
"We are not expecting any escalation in temperature or the possibility of a heatwave," said Krishna Mishra, scientist, India Meteorological Department. "The easterly winds will maintain moisture feed and thunderstorm activity is expected for the next five days.
The western disturbance is also expected to persist. So there can be thunder activities like those that occurred in May."
On Friday, the city's base weather station at Safdarjung logged a maximum temperature of 41.2 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal and a drop from the 43.9 degrees Celsius recorded a day earlier, which was the warmest this season. The humidity oscillated between 51% and 69%. The winds blow in the easterly direction at speeds up to 11.1 kmph.
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Mungeshpur village in north-west Delhi, which on Thursday recorded 45.2 degrees Celsius, becoming the only area in the city to record a heatwave, saw a drop of 6.1 degrees Celsius on Friday. The maximum temperature at the weather station at Mungeshpur was at 39.1 degrees Celsius. Elsewhere, Ayanagar and Palam both recorded a high of 40.6 degrees Celsius, Lodhi Road was at 39.1 and Ridge, at 39.3 degrees Celsius.
"Tomorrow's maximum temperatures are likely to be in the range of 39-41 degrees Celsius, which will be near normal for the period," stated a forecast by IMD. The Met office hasn't issued a colour-coded warning for Saturday but forecast the maximum temperature to be between 39 degrees and 41 degrees. Thunderstorms, rain and strong winds up to 60 kmph are also likely. By June 16, the maximum temperature may be hovering at 36-38 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the city's air quality remained 'moderate' on Friday. The air quality index read 187 against Thursday's 195, both in the 'moderate' category.