By IANS,
New Delhi : With the mercury touching 42.9 degrees Celsius Friday, it was the hottest April 16 the capital has seen in the past five years, the Met department said.
“The maximum temperature recorded was 42.9 degrees Celsius which was seven degrees above average. Not only is it the highest of the season, it is also the highest temperature recorded on April 16 in the past five years,” an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.
“Last year on this day, the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius. The 43-degree mark was touched only on April 30,” the official added.
The minimum temperature was 23.5 degrees Celsius, four notches above average for this time of the year.
The weatherman attributed the blazing heat to a lack of any western disturbance over Delhi.
“The temperature tomorrow (Saturday) will also be around 43-44 degrees Celsius and the situation will remain the same over the next two-three days,” the official said.
“However, things are expected to improve with likelihood of a western disturbance which will lower the temperature in the capital,” the official added.
The soaring heat shot up the power demand in Delhi with several areas suffering outages for hours.
“Due to the unprecedented hot summer, the power demand in the national capital witnessed new highs. In April 2009 the average demand was around 3,100 MW but this year it has reached nearly 3,900 MW,” an official of the Delhi power department said.