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Squall and intermittent rainfall in the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday failed to provide respite from the heat as Delhi sweltered under a “feels like” temperature of 46.7 degrees Celsius (°C) at 5.30pm on Wednesday due to consistent dry winds, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD) data. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 42.4°C, which was 2.5°C above the normal, with humidity levels varying from 29% to 84% on the day.
However, an approaching western disturbance may bring in cooler conditions, experts said, with the IMD issuing an orange alert for rain, lightning and winds for Thursday, and a yellow alert for Friday.
“Southwesterly dry winds have been blowing over the city since yesterday (Tuesday), with bright sunshine and a cloudless sky, which has caused the ‘feels like’ temperature to remain high. Additionally, some humidity from the isolated rain which occurred on Tuesday may also have contributed to increasing the ‘feels like’ temperature,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president of Skymet weather.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperature dipped sharply, with a reading of 22.9°C, which was 5.1°C below normal and a decrease of 6.3°C from the minimum of 29.2°C recorded a day earlier.
On Tuesday evening, the city’s weather turned sharply after 5.30pm, with a squally dust storm and rainfall recorded across Delhi-NCR. The weather station at Pusa recorded the highest wind speed of 128kmph, followed by Palam, which recorded a wind speed of 120kmph, the highest wind speed since it had recorded winds of 138kmph on April 27, 2005.
There was a yellow alert in place for Wednesday morning as well, but there was no rainfall until 8.30pm. The city logged 9.6mm of rainfall in the 24 hours up to 8.30am on Wednesday, as per IMD data.
Palawat said that a western disturbance is expected to reach the city by Thursday evening, providing further rain over the coming days.
Many residents said the fast overnight winds caused entire trees or big branches to fall over. Many took to social media to post visuals of trees uprooted from concrete pavements, and ask civic agencies to fix them.
“On a road near Masjid Moth, a tree on the side of the road has fallen onto the opposite wall in such a way that it has not completely fallen on the ground, but instead, has enough of a gap to allow passage of vehicles underneath it. This is extremely dangerous, and a huge safety issue,” said Greater Kailash 2 residents’ welfare association general secretary Sanjay Rana.
In Hauz Khas, X user YK Verma posted a photo of a tree fallen onto a road, breaking apart the pavement it was rooted in and crushing a part of the locality’s boundary wall.
IMD’s forecast for Thursday predicts light rainfall and thunderstorms, with winds reaching 70kmph, and the forecast for Friday predicts multiple spells of rainfall with winds reaching 60kmph.
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