The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was checking the temperature sensor in Delhi’s Mungeshpur automatic weather station to see if the sensor is working properly, according to IMD Director General M Mohapatra.
This weather station reported 52.9 degree Celsius on Wednesday, the highest ever in India.
Dr Mohapatra said there were 20 monitoring stations in Delhi and of these, 14 have recorded a drop in temperature and the average seen across Delhi was in the range of 45-50 degree Celsius.
He said the Mungeshpur station is an “outlier”, and the recording needs to be confirmed.
Some observatories in Delhi had shown a slightly higher temperature, but the Mungeshpur recording needs a full investigation.
A team of specialists has gone to Mungeshpur to check the temperature sensor, said Dr Mohapatra. He also speculated it could be local factors around Mungeshpur that could be the cause for this high recording. Explaining the reason
behind the rising temperature, India Meteorological Department (IMD) regional head Kuldeep Srivastava said the city’s outskirts are the first areas to be hit by hot winds from Rajasthan.
“Parts of Delhi are particularly susceptible to the early arrival of these hot winds, worsening the already severe weather. Areas like Mungeshpur, Narela and Najafgarh are the first to experience the full force of these hot winds,” he told news agency PTI.
The temperature was more than nine degrees higher than expected, the second day of record-breaking heat, and pushed up the mercury by more than degree from the 2002 record of 49.2 degree Celsius.
