Soaring mercury yet again set a new 5-year record in the national Capital on Friday. While Delhi sizzled at 45 degrees Celsius on Friday, city dwellers must brace for a hotter weekend as the Met Department has predicted that temperature will drop only after Tuesday. Power demand too shot up in the past 24 hours with a record high of 108.601 million units.
Palam recorded a 19-year-high temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius. “Before this, the day temperature (at Palam) was recorded at 47.4 degrees Celsius in 1995 here,” said a Met official. “Tomorrow (Saturday) could be hotter as maximum temperature may touch 46 degrees Celsius, while the minimum is expected to remain around 30 degrees Celsius. On Sunday and Monday, the maximum will be around 45 degrees, whereas the minimum will settle around 31 degrees Celsius,” said a Met official, adding that Tuesday onwards the temperature will be below 44 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday and Thursday, the maximum temperature is expected to be 43 and 42 degrees respectively.
The maximum temperature at Aaya Nagar in South East Delhi was 46.6 degrees Celsius while it was 44.8 degrees Celsius in ridge areas. Hot and dry winds continued to lash the city throughout the day. Even night was quite warm as the minimum temperature settled for 29.4 degrees Celsius, which was a notch above normal. Humidity levels oscillated between 30 and 46 degrees during the day.