Delhi on Monday recorded the third hottest February day since 1969 with the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory, the national capital's primary weather station, soaring to 33. To put this into perspective, Delhi's maximum temperature on Monday was nine notches above normal.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) regional forecasting centre, said Delhi recorded an all-time high of 34. "This is the third highest maximum temperature in Delhi in the 1969-2023 period," another IMD official said.
As the news surfaced on social media, Delhiites couldn’t keep calm and took to Twitter to express their concerns about how hot this dreadful summer will be. “Feb feels like April,” a user tweeted. “Climate Change,” another user wrote.
Here’s how Twitter users reacted:
Srivastava said the lack of strong western disturbances was the primary reason for the early heat in Delhi and other parts of northwest India. A few feeble western disturbances have led to below-normal precipitation in the hills, Srivastava added.
Maximum temperatures are already showing a rising trend and the mercury may soar to 40 degrees Celsius and above in one or two meteorological subdivisions of northwest India in the first half of March, the scientist said.
The Met office on Sunday said isolated heatwave "conditions are likely over Kutch and Konkan during the next two days". Officials had said it was the earliest a heatwave alert was issued for these regions. However, the IMD on Monday withdrew the heatwave warning for these regions due to sea breeze leading to a drop in temperatures, the officials said.
(With inputs from PTI)
