After dry Feb, Delhi sees trace rainfall on first day of March

After a dry February, parts of Delhi on Wednesday received light rainfall and gusty winds, triggered by a western disturbance affecting the National Capital Region (NCR)

After a dry February, parts of Delhi on Wednesday received light rainfall and gusty winds, triggered by a western disturbance affecting the National Capital Region (NCR). However, the weather conditions were not enough to bring the mercury levels down, with the city recording yet another day with an above-normal maximum temperature at 31.2 degrees Celsius (°C).

Clouds in the sky over the Raisina Hill in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

The weather station at Safdarjung, representational of Delhi’s weather, recorded trace rainfall through the day, but recorded a maximum temperature of 31.2°C — six notches above the normal for this time of the year. The city also lodged a minimum temperature of 17.8°C — five degrees above normal — due to the impact of the western disturbance.

Met officials said post-rain, windy conditions and overcast skies provided a slight cooling effect, but the impact was limited to a couple of hours only. “By the afternoon, the western disturbance had passed and the sun came out once again, leading to another warm day. As is generally seen during a western disturbance, the minimum temperature rises as cloudy skies trap heat during the night,” Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at India Meteorological Department (IMD), said.

The impact of this passing shower is unlikely to bring down mercury in the coming days either. Srivastava said no immediate western disturbance is expected in the coming days, with Delhi largely recording clear to partly cloudy skies.

“Till March 7, the maximum will be around 32 to 33 degrees, while the minimum will not go below 14 degrees,” he said.

The Capital ended the month of February with a maximum temperature of 32.1°C on Tuesday, taking the average monthly maximum for February to 27.7°C — the third highest for Delhi since 1951. It was also Delhi’s hottest February since February 2006, when the average monthly maximum was 29.7°C. In 1960, February had recorded a monthly average of 27.9 °C.

The Capital also failed to record any rainfall in February, while it received 20.4mm rain over a 24-hour period between January 29 and 30 — the last time before Wednesday that the Capital had recorded rain. The normal rainfall mark for January is 19.1mm, while it is 21.3mm in February.

Between 8:30 am on Tuesday and Wednesday, the IMD recorded ‘trace’ rainfall at Safdarjung, 0.2mm at Palam, ‘trace’ at Lodhi road, Ridge and Ayanagar, while 0.5mm was recorded at Jafarpur.

The coming months are also likely to be warmer and drier than usual, with IMD’s national forecast for the months of March, April and May showing above normal temperatures in most parts of the country, including northern India.

“There is a high probability of above normal maximum temperatures over most parts of northeast India, east and central India, and some parts of northwest India in the three months. There is also a very high probability of heatwaves occurring over many regions of central and adjoining northwest India in this period,” the IMD had said in a statement on Tuesday as part of its long-range forecast for the summer.