April has been a cruel month. Delhi recorded its second highest average maximum temperature - 40.2 degrees Celsius - in the last 72 years, only 0.2 degrees Celsius lower than the hottest April for the period, which was in 2010. Temperatures began soaring in March itself, giving the capital city no spring months to ease from a particularly bleak winter. The April heat has been particularly bad, and this is not even the hottest summer month in the region. Those are May and June.
Many parts of the country, especially the northwest and central India, are in the grip of a severe heat wave, and the weatherman predicts that this will continue at least for the next few days. Till April 29, the city has had nine days of a heat wave (described as temperatures above 40 degrees and at least 4.5 degrees Celsius above normal). The predictions are that the heat wave will continue till May 2.
Records since 2011 show that heat waves are not a regular in April - 2017 had four days of heat wave, 2015 just one day. The rest of the years of the last decade did not experience a heat wave in April in Delhi.
On the other hand, April rains have gone missing this year, with just one day of any recorded rain, which was barely above trace. Compare this with thunderstorm activity in the last decade - eight days in 2012, six days in 2015, for instance, and one understands just how different this year has been. Typically, during the last days of April, the temperature is in the range of 38 degrees Celsius. This year, it touched 40 degrees Celsius on April 10 itself. Also, the minimum temperatures, too, have been consistently higher. Though, in April, minimum temperatures remain below 20 degrees Celsius at least during the first two weeks, this year, it has been above 20 degrees Celsius for most days.
Today's maximum at Safdarjung (the station from where records for Delhi are maintained) was 43.5 degrees Celsius with a minimum of 25.8 degrees Celsius. However, other pockets in Delhi have recorded even higher temperatures. The highest temperatures in the capital were recorded from the CWG sports complex at Akshardham - a maximum of 46.4 degrees Celsius and minimum of 30.2 degrees Celsius. Experts point to the formation of urban heat islands to explain such peaks within the city.
The highest-ever April temperature recorded in the Safdarjung station in the last seven decades, was on April 18, 2010 - 43.7 degrees Celsius. However, the hottest April on record was on April 29, 1941, when the mercury touched 45.6 degrees Celsius.
