The maximum temperature on Tuesday reached 35.8°C — giving way to clear skies after a weekend of cloudy skies and intermittent rainfall — up from the maximum temperature of 33.2°C recorded a day before. While Tuesday’s temperature was one degree below the normal, it is expected to rise quickly and touch 38°C by Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The IMD predicted that the temperature rise will be followed by another western disturbance, bringing light rainfall and gusty winds of up to 40kmph to Delhi-NCR. This spell of rain is likely to once again bring down mercury in Delhi, keeping the maximum to around 34-36°C over the weekend, the IMD said.
“The western disturbance will begin to impact northwest India from Thursday and continue till Sunday. However, it will mainly bring rain to the mountains. In the plains, its impact will be limited to just one day, on Friday, and there are chances of light rain. We will see overcast skies and wind speed may touch 40 kmph,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD.
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So far, Delhi has received 2.9mm of rainfall this month, against the long-period April average of 16.3mm. Last year, Delhi recorded 20.1mm of rainfall in April.
This year, Delhi is yet to cross the 40°C mark, which it normally tends to do between the second and third week of April. Delhi’s maximum had crossed 40°C by this time last year, logging 40.5°C on April 15. In 2022, this happened on April 7 (40°C) and in 2021, it crossed the mark on April 13 (40.2°C), as per the IMD data. Forecasts by the Met department till April 22 show the maximum is unlikely to cross 38°C.
On the day, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 23.5°C, which was two degrees above normal, up from 21.6°C recorded on Monday. The minimum is likely to oscillate between 22°C and 24°C till April 22.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality remained ‘poor’, deteriorating marginally in the past 24 hours, with an average air quality index (AQI) of 227.
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