At 43.5°C, Delhi buckles on hottest April day in 12 years

Data from the India Meteorological Data (IMD) showed that Thursday was Delhi’s second-hottest April day in 52 years, with the sapping weather prompting schools across the city to begin restricting students’ outdoor activities.

A heatwave gripped the national capital once again on Thursday, with the mercury climbing to 43.5 degrees Celsius, giving the city its hottest day of the year so far and its hottest April day since 2010, the weather office said, even as the mercury touched 46°C in parts of East Delhi on the day.

The Sports Complex station in east Delhi’s Commonwealth Games Village, for instance, saw a maximum of 46°C, making it not only the joint-hottest spot across India on Thursday (at par with the Hissar station in Haryana). (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Data from the India Meteorological Data (IMD) showed that Thursday was Delhi’s second-hottest April day in 52 years, with the sapping weather prompting schools across the city to begin restricting students’ outdoor activities.

However, while the Safdarjung weather station (considered representative of Delhi’s weather) recorded a maximum temperature of 43.5°C on Thursday, most other parts of the city had it worse off.

The Sports Complex station in east Delhi’s Commonwealth Games Village, for instance, saw a maximum of 46°C, making it not only the joint-hottest spot across India on Thursday (at par with the Hissar station in Haryana).

The weather’s likely to get even worse on Friday, IMD said, as it issued an ‘orange’ alert for the day (a grade above the ‘yellow’ alert in place for Thursday), forecasting that the temperature at Safdarjung may hit 44°C on Friday, with more parts likely to breach the 46°C barrier.

“This is Delhi’s hottest day for April since April 18, 2010, when it was 43.7°C. If the data from 1969 is analysed, Thursday is Delhi’s second-hottest day during this period. While Safdarjung recorded heatwave conditions, other parts of Delhi saw severe heatwave conditions,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD, adding that the normal temperature between April 26 and 30 is 38.6°C.

Met officials said Delhi is also expected to see gusty winds of up to 40-50 km/hr on Friday evening, but these are unlikely to be accompanied by rain. “This will be a dry and dusty spell, but will occur in the second half of the day and is unlikely to provide any cooling effect,” said officials.

A yellow alert is issued to alert the general public of an extreme weather event that is likely to occur. It is upgraded to orange if preventive action is required from the public, with the IMD asking people to be prepared and avoid unnecessary exposure outside due to severe heatwave conditions.

The IMD classifies it as a ‘heatwave’ if the maximum is 40°C or higher and also 4.5°C or more above normal. It is a ‘severe heatwave’ if it is 6.5°C or more above normal.

IMD data also showed out of the 11 weather stations located in the capital, the only station to record a maximum temperature below the 43-degree mark was Mayur Vihar (42.2°C). For the remaining 10 stations, the mercury hovered between 43.4°C at Lodhi Road, to 46°Cat the Yamuna Sports Complex. Mungeshpur in north-west Delhi recorded a high of 45.8 degrees Celsius, while it was 45.4 degrees at Najafgarh in southwest Delhi.

The all-time record for Safdarjung for April is 45.6°C, recorded way back on April 29, 1941.

Prior to Thursday, Delhi’s highest maximum so far this year was 42.6 degrees, recorded on April 11 and April 19.

Jenamani said there are strong chances that the weather gauges at Safdarjung touch 44°C mark on Friday. “We expect the mercury to rise at all stations, including Safdarjung,” he added.

Schools limit outdoor activities

Tania Joshi, principal of The Indian School, said the school had given children the liberty to decide if they wanted to venture out of classes for lunch break or not. The school, however, has decided against holding assemblies in the open.

“If children don’t want to go out in the sun for the games period or during the lunch break, they can choose to stay inside the classrooms,” said Joshi.

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC), a consortium of over 120 Delhi schools, and principal of ITL Public School, Dwarka, said that the school had suspended physical activities in the outdoors in view of the prevailing heat conditions.

“Physical activity in the open is restricted except for the early morning hours around 7-8am. We have also started conducting assemblies at the school auditorium in a staggered manner,” said Acharya.