By IANS
New Delhi : Summer heat poured down on north India Saturday afternoon, pushing back to distant memory the need for woollens even a couple days earlier.
It is spring by the Indian calendar, but it sure didn’t feel like it for the second day in succession, as residents scrambled for shade, switched on their fans, and started to call in the servicemen for the air-coolers.
For the second day in succession, Saturday saw the high temperature mark above 30 degrees Celsius, nearly five degrees above normal. The minimum the night before had been a balmy 11, so people still don’t know if it’s time to pack the woollens away.
It is time to do just that, if the Met office is to be believed. The weatherman has predicted a further 3-4 degree rise in maximum temperatures all over north India Sunday and Monday.
In eastern and northeastern India, the weatherman predicts widespread rain or thundershowers.
The northern plains weren’t the only place feeling the heat. In Jammu and Kashmir’s winter capital Srinagar too, Saturday’s high went to 18 degrees, nine above normal, just a week after residents had been in the middle of a cold wave with heavy snowfall.
But the valley is likely to see rain or snow Sunday, the weatherman says.
The following were the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Saturday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 31.4 (+5) 11.9 (0) Nil
Mumbai 37.0 (+5) 17.0 (-1) Nil
Chennai 31.6 (+1) 22.8 (+1) Nil
Kolkata 30.7 (0) 18.9 (+1) Nil
Ahmedabad 36.1 (+3) 12.5 (-3) Nil
Bangalore 31.6 (+1) 17.6 (0) Nil
Bhopal 34.2 (+4) 14.5 (+1) Nil
Bhubaneswar 32.3 (-1) 18.9 (-1) Nil
Chandigarh 28.2 (+3) 12.0 (+2) Nil
Dehradun 26.4 (+3) 12.6 (+3) Nil
Panaji 35.7 (+4) 19.7 (-1) Nil
Guwahati 29.2 (+1) 12.4 (-1) Nil
Hyderabad 33.0 (0) 18.2 (0) Nil
Jaipur 35.2 (+7) 13.4 (+1) Nil
Lucknow 29.4 (+1) 11.4 (0) Nil
Nagpur 35.5 (+1) 15.6 (-1) Nil
Patna 28.4 (-1) 12.8 (-1) Nil
Pune 34.6 (+2) 12.7 (0) Nil
Srinagar 18.6 (+9) 2.2 (+1) Nil
Thiruvananthapuram 35.8 (+4) 25.2 (+2) Nil