- Tuesday, July 02, 2024
The temperature was more than nine degrees higher than expected and the mercury was pushed up by more than a degree from the previous highest of 49.2 degree Celsius recorded in 2002.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA on Wednesday (29) remained witness to its highest temperature recorded ever at 52.3 degrees Celsius after a temperature-monitoring station in capital Delhi’s Mungeshpur recorded the figure in the city at 2.30 pm local time.
Kuldeep Srivastava, regional head of India Meteorological Department (IMD), said while explaining the reason behind the mercury’s incredible rise that the capital city’s outskirts are the first areas to be hit by hot winds from the neighbouring desert state of Rajasthan.
“Parts of Delhi are particularly susceptible to the early arrival of these hot winds, worsening the already severe weather. Areas like Mungeshpur, Narela and Najafgarh are the first to experience the full force of these hot winds,” he was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.
Read: Three degree Celsius temperature rise will plunge Himalayas into drought: study
The temperature was more than nine degrees higher than expected, the second day of the record-breaking heat, and the mercury was pushed up by more than a degree from the previous highest of 49.2 degree Celsius recorded in 2002.
Delhi also saw a brief shower on Wednesday afternoon, which is likely to increase the city’s humidity level.
The IMD came up with a red alert health notice for the capital, which has an estimated population of over 30 million people, making it a more populated place than many countries in the world.
The alert warned that there is a “very high likelihood of developing heat illness and heat stroke in all ages”, with “extreme care needed for vulnerable people”.
While India is not new to extreme hot conditions, years of scientific research has shown that climate change is causing frequent heatwaves that are more intense with longer duration.
Delhi also saw an all-time high demand for electricity at 8,302 megawatts (MW) amid intensifying heatwaves as more and more people were turning on power-intensive air-conditioning devices, officials in the power department said.
In northern states such as Rajasthan and Haryana, areas such as Phalodi and Sirsa, respectively, also recorded temperatures higher than 50 degrees Celsius.
In some areas of Rajasthan such as Jodhpur, Udaipur, Sirohi, Jalore and Barmer, temperatures saw a dip by around four degrees due to incursion of moist wind from the Arabian Sea that washes the western shores of India.
Similarly, incursion of moist winds from the Bay of Bengal to the east of India from Thursday (30) is likely to cause a gradual decrease in maximum temperature over the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
This might be the beginning of the heatwave reduction over northwest India, the only silver-lining for the millions inhabiting those parts.
The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 56.7 degrees Celsius which was at the Greenland Ranch in California’s Death Valley in 1913.
