NEW DELHI: The city continued to sweat and suffer on Wednesday due to high maximum temperature and humidity, which kept the outdoors unpleasant. However, the weather department expects respite on Thursday with the possibility of moderate to heavy rainfall.
The maximum temperature at Safdarjung was 40.9 degrees Celsius, four notches above the season’s average, against 41.5 degrees a day earlier.
Despite a drop of nearly a degree in the daytime temperature, people failed to get any relief. The real feel temperature or the heat index due to high humidity at 2.30pm was 51 degrees Celsius. At 2.30pm, the temperature was 40.4 degrees Celsius and relative humidity 43%.
On Wednesday, the humidity oscillated between 41% and 77%.
The minimum temperature at Safdarjung was 28.8 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average, against 33.9 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
Jafarpur turned out to be the warmest area on Thursday with the maximum temperature being recorded at 42.5 degrees Celsius, followed by Aya Nagar at 42.4 degrees, Najafgarh at 42.1 degrees, Palam at 41.6 degrees and Mungeshpur at 40.4 degrees Celsius.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast rain on Thursday, which would lead to a sharp decline in the maximum temperature.
The maximum temperature is expected to fall to 35 degrees Celsius. The city may also see gusty winds up to 30-40 kmph from varied directions.
“There is a possibility of moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday, which will bring down the maximum daytime temperature to 37 degrees Celsius. It may drop to 35 degrees depending upon the intensity of rainfall, which will vary across the city.
There is a high possibility of moderate to heavy rainfall (30mm to 64mm) on June 30 and July 1.
We will observe the pattern and timing and based on that the arrival of monsoon could be declared,” said RK Jenamani, senior weather scientist, IMD.
Meanwhile, the air quality remained within the moderate level with an Air Quality Index of 163 against 137 a day earlier.
