City’s mercury madness tamed

In the past one week, the mercury has slid steadily from 43.7 degrees Celsius to a comfortable 39.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

Delhi is in the middle of an unexpected break from the torrid summer.

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In the past one week, the mercury has slid steadily from 43.7 degrees Celsius to a comfortable 39.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

On Sunday it was almost the same at 39.4, only a few degrees above normal.

The mercury has been falling almost a degree a day since last Saturday.

Owing to some rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in the past few days, the heat wave is history.

In fact, the end of this week, by Thursday, there could be some rainfall in Delhi as well, the forecasters have said.

The BBC Weather has gone a step further and forecasted heavy rains.

“The heat wave has abated across North India,” said a Met official at the Safdarjung observatory of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

What is helping matters is a constant breeze (cool northwesterly winds) blowing at around 10 kilometres per hour.

The minimum temperatures that had touched 30 degrees Celsius, giving rise to muggy nights and early mornings, have also returned close to the normal level. On Sunday, for instance, it was 24.7 degrees Celsius, just three degrees more than normal.

“The days are much more tolerable now thanks to the sudden fall in temperatures,” said Sudha Kumar, a housewife in Mayur Vihar.

The morning walkers, too, have felt the difference.

“We had to suspend morning walks the whole of last week since the air was warm even at six in the morning,” said R.K. Sood, a senior citizen in Moti Bagh.

“But now the morning walks are a nice experience again.”

Before that, however, the mercury will see a slight rise.

On Monday, the temperatures might remain between 26 and 41 degrees Celsius.