New Delhi: The national capital broke records on Wednesday (May 29), but not of the good kind: per reports, Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi clocked 52.3 degrees Celsius at around 4 pm. This is reportedly the highest temperature ever recorded at the weather station.
Though officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shared this information with news agencies on the same day and commented on it, the department has now back-tracked.
Union earth sciences minister Kiren Rijiju claimed it was “very unlikely” that the temperature was so high. Later that night, the IMD announced in a press release that the recorded temperature at Mungeshpur was an “outlier” and that this could have occurred because of a faulty sensor or “local factors”.
Meanwhile, ongoing heatwave and severe heatwave conditions across many parts of northwest and central India, including parts of Delhi and Punjab, are likely to continue till May 30, after which temperatures will reduce gradually, according to the IMD.
Mungeshpur, Delhi’s hottest?
On May 29, temperatures in many parts of northwestern India reached all-time highs.
Many areas in New Delhi too neared the 50 degrees Celsius mark.
Per some reports, the government’s automatic weather station in Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi clocked 52.3 degrees Celsius at around 4 pm. This, some reports said, is the hottest temperature ever recorded not just in Delhi but across the whole country.
IMD officials spoke about this to news agencies but the department back-tracked, and Rijiju said IMD scientists would soon issue a “clarification”.
At 8 pm on May 29, the IMD released a press release specifically on temperatures observed in Delhi that day. According to the IMD, the highest temperature that Delhi experienced was 49.1 degrees Celsius (at Najafgarh on May 29, per the data released in the press release):
“The maximum temperature over Delhi NCR varied from 45.2° to 49.1°C in different parts of city, Mungeshpur reported 52.9°C as an outlier compared to other stations,” the press release read.
It added: “It could be due to error in the sensor or the local factor. IMD is examining the data and sensors.”
The press release also said that because some parts of Delhi had received rainfall, temperatures had fallen slightly the very same day.
Severity “likely to reduce”
The existing heat wave to severe heat wave conditions over northwest and central India “are likely to reduce gradually” from today, the IMD said in its press release on May 29.
Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Bihar and Odisha will “very likely” witness warm night conditions from May 30 to June 1, in Uttar Pradesh on May 30 and 31, and in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh on May 30, per the IMD’s release.
Warmer nights mean that minimum temperatures have risen, and this is a problem when it comes to coping with the heat.
“Increasingly, overnight temperatures offer little relief during periods of extreme heat, which means people struggle to escape the health risks it brings,” Andrew Pershing, VP for science, at Climate Central, said in a press release.
“These events are occurring more frequently as carbon pollution warms our planet, and until we stop burning fossil fuels, life-threatening temperatures will only become more common,” he added.
Both minimum and maximum temperatures are on the “higher side” in Bihar today, and there is humidity as well – which is why the IMD has issued a red alert for the state for today (May 30), IMD scientist Naresh Kumar told the press agency ANI in a video interview on May 30.
However, Delhi temperatures are no longer in the “scenario” that requires a red alert, he added.
Currently, temperatures are gradually decreasing in the north and northwestern parts of India due to the impact of the western disturbance that brought some light rain to several of these areas, such as Delhi-NCR, Punjab and some parts of the Himalaya.
Moreover, the change in the pattern of the incoming westerly winds has also led to a gradual decrease in temperatures, he added.
“The severity will reduce over the next days,” he told ANI.
On May 30, a 40-year-old factory worker from Darbhanga in Bihar and working in Delhi was hospitalised due to heat stroke, but doctors could not save him because his body temperature rose to 107 degrees Fahrenheit, the Indian Express reported.
Fire calls, water shortage rise in capital
Another impact of the severe heat has been an increase in fire calls. On May 29, the national capital witnessed the highest number of calls to the Delhi fire services, according to its director Atul Garg, who spoke to ANI on May 30.
Of these, 183 were fire calls.
Garg added that this was the highest number ever in May so far, and if temperatures rise, fire calls are likely to increase too.
On Thursday (May 30), a room in an apartment in Noida caught fire after the air conditioner exploded.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurav Bhardwaj chaired an emergency meeting to look into the issue of water shortage in several parts of Delhi. The Delhi government was scheduled to approach the Supreme Court today over Haryana not releasing the national capital’s share of water, which has led to the water crisis, Atishi said.
