Mercury to stay below 40°C till July 1, light rain likely to persist

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Delhi, forecasting rain across parts of the city for the next six days.

New Delhi: The mercury dropped below 40 degrees Celsius (°C) in Delhi on Tuesday but there was no respite from the heat as high humidity levels made outdoors unbearable. Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 39.7°C, three degrees above normal and down from 40.4°C on Monday, and the heat index (HI) or “real feel” temperature was recorded at 52°C, a drop from 53°C the day before.

A guard drinks water while being silhouetted against the hot summer sun, at Ashram Flyover in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday. (Hindustan Times)

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Delhi, forecasting rain across parts of the city for the next six days. IMD said the monsoon is likely to cover several parts of northwest India over the next three to four days, but did not specify when the south-west monsoon would likely hit the Capital.

“Delhi will see light rain till the end of the month. The rain intensity is expected to increase from June 28, when we will see the impact of a western disturbance and the monsoon advancing further into parts of northwest India,” said an IMD official.

Delhi’s maximum dropped below 40°C for the first time in 40 days on Saturday to 39.4°C. It was 39.8°C on Sunday before it rose to 40.4°C on Monday.

In its monsoon bulletin on Tuesday, IMD said conditions were currently favourable for the south-west monsoon to advance into “the remaining parts of the North Arabian Sea, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar, most of eastern Uttar Pradesh, parts of west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, and northern Punjab and Haryana in the next three to four days.”

Delhi’s relative humidity on Tuesday oscillated between 48% and 92%, making sweating difficult outdoors — higher humidity makes it difficult for the human body to sweat and cool itself effectively. The wet bulb temperature was 29.6°C on Tuesday, marginally lower than the 29.7°C on Monday.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s minimum temperature was 28.6°C on Tuesday, a degree above normal and a drop from 31.4°C a day earlier