Summer treat: Delhi temp at par with hill stations

NOT FOR LONG The city’s temp on Monday matched that of Dharmashala and Chamba; mercury to rise by Sunday

Delhiites woke up to a hill station-like weather on Monday as the mercury dropped to 29.4 degrees — around 11 degrees below the climatic normal.

Met officials of the regional weather forecast department failed to recollect the last time the day temperature dropped below the 30 degree Celsius in May.

Some hill stations in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim such as Dharmashala, Chamba, Solan, Tadong and Pitthorgarh recorded almost similar day temperatures ranging between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius on Monday. Places at the foothills such as Dehradun recorded a much higher temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius.

“Even though the night temperature had dropped to much lower levels earlier, the day temperature didn’t dip to such low levels at least in the last six years. This is certainly the lowest day temperature in May in the recent years,” said a senior official of the Met department.

The night temperature too dropped to around 21.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 2015. It was at least five degrees below the climatic normal.

The climatic normal is the average of temperature registered in a place over a period of three decades.

Met officials explained two systems — a western disturbance and a cyclonic circulation — gave rise to rain bearing clouds which moved towards Delhi-NCR triggering rain and thunderstorm.

The relief would however soon end. The mercury could shoot up by at least 11 degrees by Sunday. “The temperature is expected to start rising from Tuesday. We expect the mercury to touch 40 degree Celsius by May 28 again,” said a senior Met official.

A monster cloud had triggered nearly 17 mm of rain on Monday before it passed over to UP.

There were at least 42 incidents of tree branches breaking off and 10 reports in which portions of buildings had caved in.