Delhi today: Hot, dusty and no sign of rainfall

The heat and dust broke a record on Thursday when the minimum temperature touched 34.7 degrees Celsius, highest-ever for June.

The heat and dust broke a record on Thursday when the minimum temperature touched 34.7 degrees Celsius, highest-ever for June.

HT Image

The minimum is usually recorded early morning, at daybreak. At seven degrees hotter than normal, this was the hottest the morning temperatures have been in June since 1969, when the Met’s Safdarjung observatory, whose observations represent the city’s weather, began keeping records.

A mass of gray clouds had taken over the city’s skies late Wednesday, not allowing the heat to escape. As a result, Thursday morning was muggier than usual, the weatherman said.

The maximum temperature reached 41.2 degrees Celsius, a couple of degrees more than normal and considered ‘moderately hot’ for this time of the year.

“The clouds are the result of cyclonic Southerly winds. The weather will remain like this for some time,” said R.C. Vashisht, Director of the Safdarjung observatory.

A dust haze almost blinded the city in the afternoon as winds blew at upwards of 29 km per hour for a few hours.

“We could not drive for some time because the dust haze. We had to pull over,” said Anita Kumar, a sales executive who works at Nehru Place.

The overcast skies and the brisk winds set the stage for some downpour. There was, however, no rainfall eventually.

But chances of some downpour before monsoon has gotten stronger because of some rain bearing systems approaching Delhi following a cyclonic storm that changed course from Arabian sea and is now heading towards northwestern India.

“We might see rainfall between the 4th and the 7th of this month,” he added.