After cool respite, hot winds may take mercury up to 40°C
ON WEDNESDAY, THE MAX TEMPERATURE WAS RECORDED AT 33.4°C, THREE DEGREES BELOW THE NORMAL LEVEL
NEW DELHI: After a brief relief from heat, the day temperature in the national capital is likely to shoot up to around 40 degrees again over the next one week, officials of the meteorological department have said.
“The western disturbance, which had triggered some rain in and around Delhi, has passed. The sky will gradually clear up from Thursday and the mercury level would rise significantly over the next one week. It could touch 40 degrees by April 16,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, senior scientist with the regional weather forecasting centre in New Delhi.
On Wednesday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 33.4 degrees Celsius, which was three degrees below the normal. The minimum temperature stood at 23.6 degrees Celsius, which was three degrees above the normal.
“A western disturbance was likely to trigger rain in Delhi and NCR on Tuesday and Wednesday. Even though Delhi received just traces of rain (less than 1mm), other areas including Gurgaon and Faridabad received light rain,” Srivastava said.
Most of the rain occurred over parts of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. While Chandigarh received 11.3mm of rain, Amritsar received 10.2mm between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. Places like Shimla, Jammu and Srinagar received more rain.
But now the effects of the western disturbance are withering and the easterly winds that were bringing in moisture from the Bay of Bengal have also stopped. “We are expecting the hot and dry winds from the west and north west again. With a clear sky and hot winds from the west blowing in, the temperature would start shooting up,” said an official.
While the western disturbances are known to bring rain during the winter season, they mostly trigger thunderstorms and dust storms during this time of the year. But this time, the conditions were favourable for rains, as the easterly winds were bringing in moisture.