Western disturbance to usher in cooler end to April in Delhi: IMD

The IMD said the new western disturbance is expected to begin influencing the weather on Sunday and Monday, and will keep the mercury below 40°C

The month of April is likely to end on a cooler note than usual, similar to what happened last month, Met officials said on Saturday, predicting the arrival of another western disturbance on Sunday that will keep temperatures under the 40°C threshold.

IMD’s forecast shows Delhi’s maximum is likely to hover around 37-38 degrees till April 25.

This will make April, 2023 cooler compared to the same time last year, when much of the country saw summer-like temperatures within days of winter ending in March itself.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the new western disturbance is expected to begin influencing the weather on Sunday and Monday, and will keep the mercury below 40°C till at least April 28.

Between April 15 and 18, Delhi saw four straight days when the maximum temperature was above the 40-degree mark, with the highest maximum for the month so far on April 17, when the city logged a high of 40.6 degrees Celsius (°C). However, a spell of rain on Thursday brought the mercury down, with the Capital recording temperatures of 38.2°C on Thursday, 36.7°C on Friday and 36.8 °C on Saturday.

IMD’s forecast shows Delhi’s maximum is likely to hover around 37-38 degrees till April 25, before rising to 38-39 degrees till April 28.

These predicted temperatures are much lower than the temperatures logged in previous years. In April 2022, Delhi’s maximum touched 43.5°C on both April 29 and 30. In 2021, the highest maximum temperature in April was 42.2 °C on April 29. Met officials said that even with a gradual rise in temperature towards the end of the month, Delhi will likely see such levels only in May.

“From the beginning of the month, we have been recording western disturbances. A spell of rain occurred at the start of the month, with 16.3mm rain recorded between April 3 and 4. Subsequent western disturbances have brought cloudiness and gusty winds, which also bring a cooling effect,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD.

Srivastava said the next western disturbance from Sunday is likely to bring cloudiness, with only isolated parts of the city receiving a drizzle on both Sunday and Monday.

“We will also see gusty winds that possibly touch 50 km/hour in places on Sunday,” he said.

Delhi received no rainfall in April last year.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president at the private forecaster Skymet, said the month is likely to end at a high of around 40-41°C. “With this new western disturbance approaching again, we will have had four western disturbances in April,” he said.

The IMD also predicted there will be no heatwave in most parts of the country in the coming five days, with heavy rainfall forecast for parts of Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala between April 22 and 24.