Delhi’s Mungeshpur is ‘hottest’ at 49.2°C
NEW DELHI: Mungeshpur, along the Capital’s border with Haryana, was the hottest place in India on Sunday, with the maximum temperature in the north-west Delhi neighbourhood a crackling 49.2 degrees Celsius (°C), according to countrywide data from the national weather office, with residents saying that surviving the day felt akin to “a battle”.
Barely anyone in the village left home after noon, said residents.
“It seemed like there was a lockdown in place. Hardly anyone was outside, except daily wage labourers,” said Devinder Singh, a 67-year-old who has lived in Mungeshpur for most of his life.
On Sunday, all 11 weather stations across Delhi recorded maximum temperatures above 45°C, but Mungeshpur and Najafgarh (in south-east Delhi) recorded readings above 49°C, numbers the Capital has never clocked.
To be sure, the automatic weather stations in the two neighbourhoods only started operations this year, so no past data is available. Safdarjung, the base weather station for Delhi, recorded a maximum of 45.6°C, five degrees above normal. The all-time record for Safdarjung is 47.2°C, recorded on May 29, 1944.
Umesh Singh, a resident of Mungeshpur, said the heat has impacted the area’s crop, which consists mostly of jawar.
“Most farmers find it tough to head out to the fields in this heat,” he said.
A semi-urban area characterised by a combination of concretised spaces and open farm fields, Mungeshpur also overlooks a number of industries in Haryana, a factor that residents said could be feeding the ongoing heat spell.
“Earlier, we had a lot of trees in the area. But slowly, development work, such as the Bawana industrial area, which is not too far away, or on the Haryana side, where a number of factories have sprung up, are all adding to emissions and the heat. The village has also evolved and with construction work, the number of trees has reduced,” Singh said, adding that the low-cost ACs installed in most homes wilted in the face of the record heat.
Over towards Najafgarh, Kartar Singh (74), voiced similar views.
“If one looks at the Najafgarh area towards the city, there are hardly any trees left and traffic congestion is a major problem. Even in the farming area and fields, there aren’t as many trees as there used to be,” said Singh.
A senior official from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said westerly winds from Rajasthan are likely impacting the Mungeshpur and Najafgarh stations more than others in the city.
“These hot and dusty westerly winds hit Delhi’s western side first, and all stations in this part of Delhi are bound to have a higher maximum temperature,” said the official, adding that local factors such as the lack of green cover and presence of concrete structures exacerbate the problem.
Paras Tyagi, an environmental activist, who runs CYCLE India, an NGO, said open spaces are harder to find in Najafgarh now, with green cover along the roadsides also reducing due to construction work.
“Land values have appreciated over time and Najafgarh has turned into a concrete jungle over the last couple of decades. Our research clearly shows due to lack of implementation of the Delhi Master Plan and due to poor local planning, this historic town has been irreparably damaged in terms of congestion and concretisation,” he says.
It was a similar scenario in several parts of northwest and central India, which reeled under a scorching heatwave on Sunday, with the mercury in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda hitting 49°C.
Most parts of the region saw temperatures well above normal.
Churu in Rajasthan logged a temperature of 47.9°C, while Haryana’s Hisar clocked 47.3°C.
Met officials also said that amid the ongoing heatwave conditions, the south-west monsoon is likely to advance into the south Andaman Sea, Nicobar Islands and adjoin the south-east Bay of Bengal in the next 24 hours.
“Squally weather with wind speed reaching 40-50kmph gusting to 60kmph also likely over east-central Bay of Bengal adjoining the north Andaman Sea on May 17-19,” the forecast read.
‘Rain shortfall to blame for early, intense heat’
Capital may have been breaking rainfall records in January and February this year, but since March 1, Delhi hasn’t seen any significant showers, one of the factors experts say was behind the early and intense heat spell across the city.
This first month of the year was Delhi’s wettest January in 121 years, and February was the city’s wettest in eight years. But between March 1 and May 15, Delhi has recorded just 1.7mm of rain — a deficit of 95.5% percent against the normal rainfall of 37.5mm.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said this lack of rain is the primary catalyst for the intense, and prolonged, heat spell across the region, with Delhi in particular not recording any significant western disturbance in this time either.
“We have seen western disturbances in March, April and May, but none strong enough to bring substantial rainfall. Most either led to cloudy skies or stronger winds, which can push the maximum temperature by a degree or two, but cannot provide relief,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD.
During this period, Delhi has recorded only two rainy days — April 21, when it received a paltry 0.3mm of rainfall and on May 4, when it got 1.4mm of rain.
In March, Delhi failed to record any rain at all in the entire month – the first time this happened since March 2018. This led to the Capital recording the fourth highest mean maximum temperature for the month (32.9°C) between 1951 and 2022 and the second highest mean minimum (17.6°C) for the same period. On March 30, Delhi also recorded its joint-second hottest March day, when the maximum touched 39.6°C, behind only 2021, when the mercury hit 40.1°C degrees in the month.
In the absence of rain, more heat records tumbled in April, with Delhi recording a mean maximum temperature of 40.2 degrees, making it the second hottest April between 1951 and 2022. It was only hotter in 2010 (40.4) degrees.
While the average rainfall for March is 15.9mm, it is 12.2mm for April. For May, it is 19.7mm, with 9.4mm the normal mark till May 15. “For the first 10 days of May, the maximum temperature stayed close to the normal mark and Delhi also saw light rainfall and isolated hailstorm activity. However, heatwave conditions have returned because there is no strong western disturbance prevailing in the region,” said a met official.
While a western disturbance is expected from Monday, it will be a weak one again and is unlikely to bring any rain. Another western disturbance is forecast for May 21, but this too is unlikely to be accompanied by showers. “The second western disturbance is likely to cause gusty winds and dust storms. The maximum will drop by a few degrees, but stay above 40°C,” a Met official said.