Cloudy skies, strong winds provide relief from heat

Strong wind and partly cloudy skies provided some relief from the scorching heat in the national Capital on Wednesday.

Five flights were diverted from Delhi to Jaipur between 3 am and 5:30 am due to the strong winds, an official at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport said.

Thunderstorm and rain, under the influence of a western disturbance active over the western Himalayan region, will bring further relief from the heat, meteorologists said.

The maximum temperature is likely to drop by another two to three degrees over the next two days.

Delhi’s primary weather station, the Safdarjung Observatory, registered a minimum temperature of 23.6 degrees Celsius, two notches higher than normal. The maximum temperature settled at 38.2 degrees Celsius. Delhi had recorded a maximum temperature of 40.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. This was the fourth consecutive day that the maximum temperature settled above 40 degrees Celsius here.

Parts of the national Capital reeled under heatwave conditions for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

The threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in plains, at least 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas, and at least 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 degrees Celsiu