Brief respite from extreme heat likely

New Delhi: Parts of the city saw a thunderstorm around 9am on Thursday with winds gusting around 40kmph even as the day turned out to be warm and humid despite a drop in the temperatures. The weather department, however, expects respite from extreme heat over the next few days, before temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius by June 16-17 again.

Around 2pm, the temperature was 37.8 degrees Celsius, which felt like 43.4 degrees. The condition, however, was much better than a day earlier when 41.4 degrees Celsius around 2pm felt like 48.5 degrees. Respite was evident on Thursday, with late afternoon cooling quickly.

At base station Safdarjung, the maximum temperature was 38.7 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal, against 42.4 degrees Celsius a day earlier. At 40.5 degrees Celsius, Pusa in west Delhi was the hottest area in the city.

The minimum temperature, however, saw a sharp rise at 30 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal, against 22.9 on Wednesday, mostly due to the overnight clouding that trapped the heat being radiated from the earth. The humidity oscillated between 59% and 41%.

An orange alert expecting rain and thunderstorm was issued by India Meteorological Department. But no major activity was noticed till 7pm. As per IMD, the region will see rain and thunderstorm over the next few days and a yellow alert has been issued for Friday.

Friday’s maximum temperature is expected to be 34-36 degrees Celsius, which will rise to 38-41 degrees by June 17.

The air quality continued to be moderate, with an AQI of 167 on Thursday against 169 a day earlier, on a scale of 0 to 500.