Okhla reels under severe heatwave, mercury soars in Delhi

Okhla reels under severe heatwave, mercury soars in Delhi

Okhla residents got up in the morning to hot weather with mercury soaring in Delhi for the last many days. The national capital is in the grip of heat wave with the mercury staying above the 45-degree Celsius mark in many areas of the national Capital on Monday.

At the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s base station, the maximum temperature settled at 43.5 degrees Celsius as against 44.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday and 43.9 on Saturday. Najafgarh was the hottest place in Delhi with the maximum temperature settling at 46.4 degrees, five notches above normal.

An “orange alert” for a severe heatwave in Delhi and neighbouring areas of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh was issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday.

“From June 8 to 10, strong surface winds will surface the city and the maximum temperature will shoot up to 41-43 degrees Celsius,” IMD said. According to the weather agency, Delhiites will get a respite from the heat wave from June 11 as rain and thunderstorm expected.

“Heatwave conditions in isolated pockets over Northwest, Central and adjoining East India during next three-four days,” it said in a statement.

“As a result maximum temperature increased from these warm air advection and a fresh spell of heat wave only developed covering isolated pockets of northwest Rajasthan initially on 2 and 3 June and then further spread east and north over to adjoining Punjab, Haryana, in some pockets over Delhi and its peripherals, Uttar Pradesh and northern parts from Madhya Pradesh from 4 June,” the IMD official.

“No significant change in maximum temperatures is very likely over most parts of Central India during the next two days and fall by two-three degrees Celsius,” it said.