June started on a cooler note in Delhi with overcast skies and rains over the last few days.
The capital’s primary weather station, Safdarjung Observatory, recorded a minimum temperature of 20.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday, six notches below normal.
Generally cloudy skies, light rain, and gusty winds are predicted during the day. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 35 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Delhi recorded its coolest May in 36 years, with excess rainfall bringing the average maximum temperature down to 36.8 degrees Celsius this time, according to the IMD.
Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre at IMD, said Delhi had recorded an average maximum temperature of 36 degrees Celsius in May 1987.
“The average maximum temperature of 36.8 degrees Celsius in May this year is the lowest since then,” he said.
Delhi recorded maximum temperatures above the 40-degree mark for just nine days in May, with heatwave conditions affecting some parts of the national capital for two days.
“The Safdarjung Observatory has not recorded any heatwaves in the pre-monsoon season this year. This has happened for the first time since 2014,” Srivastava said. The weather station recorded 13 heatwave days in the pre-monsoon season last year — nine in April and four in May. It saw just one heatwave day during this period in 2021, four in 2020, and one in 2019.
