At 43.5 degrees Celsius, Delhi records hottest April day in 12 years

Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 43.5 degrees Celsius on Thursday – the highest for the month of April in 12 years, PTI reported. On April 18, 2010, the city had registered a maximum temperature of 43.7 degrees Celsius.

The temperature of 43.5 degrees Celsius was recorded in the city’s Safdarjung observatory. The observatory at the Sports Complex recorded a maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was also more than five degrees above normal at the Ridge (45.1 degrees), Mungeshpur (45.8 degrees), Najafgarh (45.4 degrees) and Pitampura (45.2 degrees) observatories, according to PTI.

Delhi has now recorded nine heatwave days in April, the highest for the month since 2010, when the city had 11 such days.

For the plains, a heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature goes up to 40 degrees Celsius or more and is least at 4.5 degrees above normal. A severe heatwave is when the normal temperature is 6.5 degrees Celsius more than the normal.

For Friday, the India Meteorological Department has warned of a severe heatwave, and has issued an orange alert. An orange alert warns the authorities to be prepared to tackle weather-related matters such as heatwaves and intense rainfall.

There may be a respite from heatwave conditions next week, The Indian Express quoted weather department scientists as saying.

RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department, said that a dry spell of about 65 days in Delhi and the surrounding areas, and westerly winds from Rajasthan and other neighbouring regions have led to the high temperatures, according to the newspaper.

The India Meteorological Department has also issued an orange alert for Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha on Friday.

The Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, western Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh, Delhi and eastern Rajasthan will suffer from a heatwave till May 3, the weather agency said on Thursday.