Winter over, more 30°C days likely this month, says IMD
NEW DELHI: The temperature in the national capital hit the 30 degree Celsius mark in February at its earliest point in 15 years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, as the winter comes to a close in Delhi, with temperatures forecast to rise for most of the month with little chances of the cold returning. Data maintained by the weather department shows that the maximum temperature last crossed 30°C in the first half of February in 2006.
According to IMD data, the maximum temperature recorded on Wednesday at the Safdarjung weather station, considered to be the official marker of the city, was 30.4°C, seven above the season’s normal.
Experts at the weather office attributed the trend to winds blowing in from the south-west and said that it was not necessarily “unusual”.
On Thursday, the maximum temperature dipped and reached
26.1°C, three above the season’s normal, while the minimum was 9.6°C.
Scientists said this fall in temperature would be temporary and predicted that the mercury will rise again.
In fact, between February 13 and February 21, the maximum
temperature is expected to scale above the 30°C-mark again.
February 2006 holds the record for the highest maximum temperature for the month, when the mercury in the Capital touched 34.1°C on February 26, nearly 11 degrees above normal.
NEW DELHI: The temperature in the national capital hit the 30 degree Celsius mark in February at its earliest point in 15 years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, as the winter comes to a close in Delhi, with temperatures forecast to rise for most of the month with little chances of the cold returning.
Data maintained by the weather department shows that the maximum temperature last crossed 30°C in the first half of February in 2006.
“We can say that the winters are over,” Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’S regional weather forecasting centre had said on Wednesday.
According to IMD data the maximum temperature recorded on Wednesday at the Safdarjung weather station, considered to be the official marker of the city, was 30.4°C, seven above the season’s normal.
Experts at the weather office attributed the trend to winds blowing in from the south-west and said that it was not necessarily “unusual”.
On Thursday, the maximum temperature dipped and reached 26.1°C, three above normal, while the minimum was 9.6°C.
Scientists said this fall in temperature would be temporary and predicted that the mercury will rise again.
In fact, between February 13 and February 21, the maximum temperature is expected to scale above the 30°C-mark again.
February 2006 holds the record for the highest maximum temperature for the month, when the mercury in the Capital touched 34.1°C on February 26, nearly 11 degrees above normal.
IMD records show that the mean maximum temperature for February is 23.9°C, and the mean minimum is 10.4°C.
IMD scientists said while February this year has seen a rising trend in temperatures sooner than it normally does, the spike on Wednesday was caused due to bright sunshine and warmer winds due to the impact of a western disturbance, which also led to a change in wind direction.
Srivastava said there were clear skies over Delhi on Wednesday, and winds were blowing from the south-west.
“Winds from this direction are generally warmer, which impacted the temperature,” Srivastava said. “Though touching 30°C is not unusual for February, temperatures have not been rising this early in the month. For the remaining part of the month too, we do not foresee any drastic fall in temperatures or any sign of cold wave or cold days being recorded,” another senior IMD scientist said.
The scientist also clarified that early recordings of high temperatures was not indicative of the month turning into the warmest in the last few years.
“The exact picture of whether this could feature in the list warmest February months, will have to be seen once we take the MMTS (mean maximum/minimum temperatures),” he said.
Meanwhile, pollution levels also deteriorated on Thursday. Recordings by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) show that the overall air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was 330, in the ‘very poor’ zone.
On Wednesday, the AQI had improved to the ‘poor’ range, clocking 291 in the AQI scale. Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), forecast said that the AQI levels are expected to remain in the ‘very poor’ zone in the coming days. An improvement is only likely after February 15, according to Safar.
GHAZIABAD: A little over 45% of the scheduled Covid-19 vaccination beneficiaries turned up to get their shot in Ghaziabad on Thursday, the lowest so far.
Experts attributed the decline to low awareness.
This was the seventh day of the vaccination drive that began on January 16. On the first day, 94.75% (379 of 400) beneficiaries reported to receive their shot. On January 22, this dropped to 81.28% (3,251 of 4,000), on January 28 it was 71.91% (4,095 of 5,695), January 29 was 72.69% (4,190 of 5,764), February 4 was 70.05% (3,557 of 5,078) and on February 5 it was 63.74% (3,129 of 4,909). On Thursday, only 1,559 of 3,439 were vaccinated.
Officials said that the first five rounds were mostly for healthcare workers (HCWS) as part of phase 1 of the drive; and other frontline workers such as civic body personnel and police, among others from February 5 when phase 2 began.
“We will inoculate the pending HCWS on February 15. On Thursday we concentrated mostly on other frontline workers,” said Dr NK Gupta, Ghaziabad chief medical officer.
The district has a list of about 24,000 HCWS and 19000 other frontline workers.
“It is possible that most of the HCWS were not required to step out of their hospitals and received their shots there. In case of frontline workers, they are mostly deployed for duties in different areas and may not have reached their designated centres while on duty,” said Dr Gupta, adding that departmental heads will be asked to get their staff vaccinated on priority.
District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not respond to calls.
Overall, during the seven days of vaccination in Ghaziabad,
the district has inoculated 20147 of 29285 scheduled beneficiaries,which is around 68.84%.
“The vaccination of frontline workers is essential as they move about a lot in field. The decline in coverage could be due to lower awareness. In case of HCWS, they were quite aware of the vaccination. Even our association members posted videos and pictures after vaccination to spread awareness,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association – Ghaziabad.
“Frontline workers’ departments will have to expedite the process. The Covid cases have reduced considerably. So, it is vital that vaccination goes ahead to prevent a case spike,” he added.
In the third phase, people over 50 years and also others suffering from comorbidities like diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure will be inoculated.