Delhi weather update: After recording its coolest May in the last 36 years, Delhi on Thursday witnessed a cool start of June with overcast skies and the after-effect of rains over the last few days. According to Safdarjung Observatory, the national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 20.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday, June 2. It also predicted cloudy skies, light rain and gusty winds during the day.
Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of IMD, said Delhi had recorded an average maximum temperature of 36 degrees Celsius in May 1987. "The average maximum temperature of 36.8 degrees Celsius in May this year is the lowest since then," he said.
Delhi did not witness heatwave in pre-monsoon season this year
Delhi recorded maximum temperatures above the 40-degree mark for just nine days in May with heatwave conditions affecting some parts of the national capital for two days. "The Safdarjung Observatory has not recorded any heatwave in the pre-monsoon season this year. This has happened for the first time since 2014," Srivastava said.
The weather station recorded 13 heatwave days in the pre-monsoon season last year -- nine in April and four in May. It saw just one heatwave day during this period in 2021, four in 2020 and one in 2019.
The threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in the coastal areas, and 30 degrees in the hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.
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May recorded 111 mm of rainfall
May, generally the hottest month in Delhi with a mean maximum temperature of 39.5 degrees Celsius, recorded 111 mm of rainfall this time, which is 262 per cent more than the long-term average of 30.7 mm.
This is also the fourth highest rainfall recorded in the month after 165 mm in 2008, 144. 8 mm in 2021 and 129.3 mm in 2002, according to IMD data. Meteorologists attributed the excess rainfall and below-normal temperatures this pre-monsoon season (March to May) to higher-than-usual western disturbances -- weather systems that originate in the Mediterranean region and bring unseasonal rainfall to northwest India.
(With inputs from agencies)
