It is 40.5°C, but Delhi feels a scorching 53.5°C

Step outside in Delhi these days and the air does something strange. It is not just hot - it feels heavy, sticky and almost impassable, as if the heat has weight and is leaning against your skin. On Tuesday, Delhi felt like 53.5 degree Celsius at 5.30 pm. The actual high, as measured at the Safdarjung weather station, was 40.5 degrees Celsius, 3.1 notches above normal, while the minimum was 30.2°C, 2.3 notches above normal.

High humidity, which on Tuesday ranged between 65 per cent and 48 per cent caused this wet-bulb effect, where the temperatures being felt are higher than they actually are. Experts said that the dry westerly winds from Pakistan are keeping temperatures high, while southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea are also reaching Delhi and increasing humidity.

“When these dry and moist air masses interact, clouds do form, but there is not enough moisture for widespread rainfall. By the time cloud formation takes place, usually around 4 or 5 pm, the day’s maximum temperature has already been recorded. That is why both the maximum temperature and the ‘feel-like’ temperature have remained unusually high,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather.

Despite the oppressive conditions, no heatwave was realised over Delhi. “As per data received until now, the heatwave criteria is satisfied only at one station over the subdivision of Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi. No heatwave was realised over Delhi today as we need a minimum of two stations over the subdivision of Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi to satisfy the heatwave criteria,” an IMD release read.

Delhi has missed its normal southwest monsoon onset date of June 27. The IMD has not yet announced an expected arrival date for the monsoon in the national capital but it is expected to be between June 4 and June 8.