IMD expects mercury to rise, touch 45°C in parts on Friday
HT Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Temperatures shot up across the Capital on Wednesday as the impact of Cyclone Asani over Delhi waned considerably, with the mercury touching a high of over 43 degrees Celsius (°C) in some parts, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The maximum temperature is expected to rise by between one and three degrees over the next 48 hours, with heatwave conditions likely to be declared in Delhi from Friday, the IMD predicted. It added that a “yellow alert” had been sounded for Delhi from Friday till Sunday.
The Safdarjung observatory, Delhi’s base weather station, recorded a maximum temperature of 41.4°C on Wednesday, two degrees above normal and 1.9 more than Tuesday.
Najafgarh was the hottest location in the city, with a maximum of 43.3°C.
In terms of minimum temperature, Delhi recorded a low of 28°C on Wednesday, which was still three notches above normal. The minimum too is expected to rise in the coming days and will remain near 29°C until Sunday, the IMD said
RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD, said Delhi’s maximum temperature remained between 39°C and 40°C over the past three days, owing to relatively cooler easterly winds, as a result of Cyclone Asani, which is still over the Bay of Bengal. However, wind direction will switch to westerly by Thursday, he said.
“The cyclone has weakened considerably and its impact on Delhi also reduced on Wednesday, which led to a rise in temperature. These moisture-laden winds of speeds of up to 15-20 km/hr were regulating the temperature but on Wednesday, wind speeds dropped and the easterly component also reduced. From Thursday onwards, there will be a sustained rise in temperature until the weekend,” said Jenamani.
The IMD expects Safdarjung to record a maximum of around 43 degrees by Thursday and 44 degrees by Friday. The mercury will hover around that mark on Saturday and Sunday, the weather office said.
“A yellow alert currently exists for Friday and Saturday. Heatwave conditions are expected in places that cross the 44°C mark, which should happen from Friday onwards,” said Jenamani.
So far this year, the highest maximum temperature recorded at Safdarjung has been 43.5°C, on three consecutive days of April 28, 29 and 30. The highest overall maximum temperature across Delhi was 47.1°C on April 30, at the Sports Complex station (Akshardham).
NEW DELHI: A special task force (STF) constituted to streamline the action plan against mosquitoborne diseases has asked roadowning agencies to speed up desilting and make the activity a yearlong exercise. Drains are currently desilted only ahead of monsoon, officials aware of the matter said.
A senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) official who was part of the STF meeting held on April 26 said under the current approach, deadlines of May 31 and June 30 have been fixed for completion of the annual desilting exercise. “This allows high mosquito breeding and increased vector density. Under the current conditions, especially with erratic rainfall, this action plan needs to be modified to make it a yearlong exercise,” the official said, asking not to be named.
Another municipal official from the public health department said the STF is now focusing on areas that witness a large influx of people and, hence, is at a higher risk of infection transmission. “High mosquito density does not translate into high number of dengue or malaria cases. It is only after the spread of infection within the mosquito population that a rise in the number of disease cases is observed. We are currently targeting places such as the CRPF camps and police training centres, which have a higher risk of infection transmission,” the second official said, requesting anonymity.
Despite very high mosquito densities being observed early this summer, the three municipal corporations have been slow in desilting drains and now only a month remains to meet the annual desilting targets, the data from the engineering departments of the three civic bodies showed.
East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said it has carried out 24.52% desilting work, removing 11,048 tonnes of silt till April 26.
A senior EDMC official said a target of 45,065 tonnes has been set for the 218 drains, spread over 120.7km. “Of the 218 drains, desilting work is in progress in 79 drains,” the official said.
SDMC has been able to remove only 11,534 tonnes of silt, a third of the target that the civic body has to meet before May 31. North corporation report said 37% of desilting work has been carried out in 815 drains. Due to the slow progress and mosquito breeding in these sites, SDMC public health department has issued fines to 12 officials from the engineering department, an official said.
While the public health departments push for yearlong desilting drives, Delhi has observed waterlogging episodes even during the winter month of January due to erratic rains. Waterlogging and rainfall are directly linked to prevalence of mosquito breeding sites. In January, Delhi recorded 88.2m of rain, the highest ever for January since 1989, when the city recorded 79.7mm of rainfall. Delhi witnessed seven western disturbances in February, not only keeping both the maximum and minimum temperature under checks, but also causing 29.7mm of rainfall that month, the highest ever figure for February since 2014.
Experts have attributed the last year’s rise in dengue cases to the prolonged monsoon. In 2021, Delhi witnessed an intense monsoon that continued into late October.
Delhi logged 9,613 dengue cases and 23 deaths in 2021, making it the second-worst annual outbreak on record — the dengue outbreak of 2015 led to 60 deaths and 15,867 infections. The severity of the outbreak last year also prompted the Delhi high court to take suo motu cognisance and a case is being heard by the court.