Mercury falls to 42 degrees, heat wave ends in Delhi

New Delhi : Bringing some respite to Delhi residents, mercury fell by over two degrees in the national capital over past 24 hours with Wednesday's maximum temperature recorded at 42 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average.

While Delhi and surrounding areas are expected to remain warm anyway, heat wave conditions will no longer affect the national capital till at least June 1, India Meteorological Department officials told IANS.

"Thursday is expected to remain cloudy with maximum temperature likely to hover around 40 to 42 degrees," IMD scientist Kuldeep Singh told IANS.

At 42.8 degrees, Palam remained the warmest region across National Capital Region (NCR) on Wednesday, though down from Tuesday's sizzling at 46.5 degrees Celsius. The Ridge and Narela saw 40 degrees and Ayanagar saw 40.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.

At Gurugram and Faridabad, mercury fell by at least 4 degrees with maximum temperature recorded at 39.7 and 39.8 degree Celsius.

"Heat waves conditions have ended today (on Wednesday) and will not affect the national capital for the next four to five days," said Kuldeep Singh.

He added that maximum temperatures are likely to hover around 40 to 42 degrees over the next four to five days in and around the national capital.

The minimum temperature on Wednesday was recorded at 29.6 degree Celsius, three notches above the season's average.

Easterly winds in the national capital maintained moisture in the air with Wednesday's humidity oscillating between 36 to 56 per cent against 18 to 47 per cent on Tuesday.

According to private weather forecasting agency Skymet, Delhi was expected to receive light rains and thunderstorm towards Wednesday evening but the weather system shifted towards Jaipur and adjoining areas of Rajasthan bringing much needed respite there.

While areas of west Rajasthan, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will still suffer for another day, heat waves conditions are expected to end by Friday in all these regions.

Tuesday's maximum temperature in Delhi was 44.4 degrees, four notches above the season's average, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 25.9 degrees, a notch below the season's average.

Delhi's air quality remained "poor" across 18 monitoring stations with 281 Air Quality Index on a scale of 0 to 500, while on Tuesday was 285.