June remains cool as rain, wind keep mercury down

Scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a western disturbance over Jammu & Kashmir and a cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh resulted in the weather suddenly turning.

Rainfall, coupled with a thunderstorm, lashed Delhi and parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) on Friday, with civic bodies reporting that over 90 trees had fallen across the city due to the strong winds.

Heavy rain slows down vehicles on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway near Akshardham temple around 6pm on Friday. (Ajay Aggarwal /HT)

Scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a western disturbance over Jammu & Kashmir and a cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh resulted in the weather suddenly turning.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said the high humidity levels in the national capital and comparatively higher daytime temperatures led to the rain.

“The maximum temperatures at the Safdarjung and Palam weather observatories were nearly 40 degrees Celsius today (Friday). The humidity levels at the Palam observatory touched 93%. This was another reason that caused the rainfall,” Srivastava said, adding that a western disturbance passing over Jammu & Kashmir and a cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh prompted the change of weather.

IMD’s initial recordings show that the Safdarjung station received 3.2mm rainfall, Palam received 9.4mm rainfall and Lodi Road 1.6mm rainfall as of 5.30pm.

The three municipalities (north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations) confirmed that Friday’s strong winds, with speeds of around 60 kilometres per hour, toppled more than 90 trees in areas such as Kalkaji, Nizamuddin West, Dilshad Garden, Greater Kailash, Uttam Nagar, among others.

Western disturbances are cyclonic storms originating over the Mediterranean that affect the weather in north-west and north India.

A cyclonic circulation is the swirling motion of winds caused by a low pressure area, which — when it pulls warm moist air — results in overcast conditions and rainfall.

On Friday, the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung weather station, which is considered to be representative of the city, was 39.5°C, a notch below what is considered normal for this time of the year.

The minimum temperature was one degree below normal at 26.1°C. The relative humidity recorded at the station was 64%.

Though the mercury remained below the 40°C-mark, the “feel-like”temperature in Delhi was 42-43°C, due to the high humidity. According to IMD, the “feel-like” temperature of a region is how hot or cold the human body feels as opposed to the actual temperature recordings.

At the Palam observatory, the day temperature was 38.4°C, three degrees below normal, while the minimum temperature was 26.2°C. The relative humidity recorded here at 5.30pm was 93%.

Met officials said the wind speeds in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida went up to 60kmph in the evening.

The IMD forecast said strong winds and rain were likely to continue till late Friday, but this was unlikely to reduce the temperature on Saturday.

“The thunderstorm is likely to stay only till Friday. We are also seeing that there is a possibility of another spell of rain around June 11-12, but we will be able to confirm that when we are closer to the date,” Srivastava said.