With the maximum temperature climbing to 42°C and the minimum settling at 29.6°C on Saturday, Delhi baked under another sweltering day, the kind where even a short walk outdoors felt like stepping into a furnace.
The Capital has been simmering under above-normal temperatures, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) noting that Saturday’s maximum temperature was 1.3°C above the seasonal average, while the minimum was 1.6°C higher than normal.
Adding to the city’s discomfort was a relative humidity level of 56 per cent recorded Saturday evening. The air quality, though, remained somewhat steady in the “moderate” category, with an AQI of 166 according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
As per the IMD, the heat index, a measure that combines temperature and humidity , hovered around an oppressive 48 degrees Celsius in parts of the city, intensifying the discomfort. But change is in the air. Quite literally as the gusty winds reaching 50 kmph swept across the city on Saturday.
As the capital’s sky turned hazy and gusts of warm wind blew through the city, IMD issued a forecast for light rain, isolated thunderstorms, and gusty winds on Saturday evening, a prelude to a broader weather shift expected over the next few days.
Though the drizzle might be fleeting, it comes as welcome relief in a week dominated by dry heat, stuffy evenings and an unforgiving sun.
But it’s not just temporary showers on the radar, the real headline is the early arrival of the southwest monsoon, which is now likely to hit Delhi around June 22 or 23, almost a week ahead of its usual June 30 onset.
“We’re seeing all the signs of early advancement,” an IMD official said, citing a forecast of increased rainfall between June 16 and 18. “Though the rainfall in Delhi will likely remain light initially, it will be enough to provide temporary relief from the extreme heat.”
The early onset is part of a monsoon that has shown a rather dramatic pattern this year. It first arrived over Kerala on May 24, its earliest onset since 2009. Bolstered by strong low-pressure systems in both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the monsoon surged through southern India and quickly covered Maharashtra and the northeast by May 29.
But after that early sprint, the system stalled between May 28 and June 10, creating a prolonged dry patch that sent temperatures soaring in central and northwestern India, including Delhi, where the mercury hovered above 40°C for days and heatwave alerts became routine.
Now, with the monsoon reactivating, the IMD expects it to progress over eastern and central India by June 18 and into most parts of northwest India including Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi between June 19 and 25.
However, meteorologists warn not to read too much into an early arrival. “The timing of the monsoon’s onset has little correlation with how much rainfall the region eventually gets,” the IMD official explained.
“It depends on several global and regional factors, and the system’s behavior can vary widely from place to place.