Hottest April 30 in 6 years

It was 42.2 degrees celsius on Wednesday, the season’s highest and also the hottest April 30 in six years, reports Avishek G Dastidar.

If you thought Wednesday was hot, wait for a few more days for some real scorchers.

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It was 42.2 degrees celsius on Wednesday—the season’s highest and also the hottest April 30 in six years. Delhiites were reeling under the heat as dry, hot winds kept adding to the temperature. At noon, the humidity in the air was as little as 16 per cent.

The Met department has said this is just the beginning of what is going to be a long upward movement of the mercury. “It will be 43 degree Celsius on Friday and remain like this on throughout the week. And that’s just the beginning of May,” said BP Yadav, director, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

May, being the hottest month, has also seen the hottest day ever in Delhi at 47.2 degrees celsius on May 29, 1944.

While officially heat wave conditions have not been declared in the region yet, “felt temperatures” are on the rise, thanks to the dry hot winds blowing from the desert areas, he said. “There is no sign of the dry winds abating at the moment. Some clouds are gathering over the hill states up north in the next few days but they will not bring in any relief,” he said.

Experts are trying to gauge how hot it will get in the coming days. “This May will be just as sweltering as the previous ones. There will be days when the sun will seem merciless with the intensity of the heat testing people’s tolerance,” Yadav said, not wanting to commit a definite prediction.

The Met department has said that relief from heat — rainfall, thunderstorms, and squalls — will be fewer yet normal during this month.

But Delhi weather has been deviating from the normal course this year. “Winter was longer than usual. We had a dry spell in March, leading to unusual heat etc. So, departure from the normal course this summer can’t be ruled out,” said OP Sharma, chief meteorologist at SkyMet, a private weather information company. “A forecast of normal monsoon means that the preceding summer will be quite sweltering,” he added.