Warmest February day in Delhi in around 17 years

The maximum temperature recorded on Monday was nine degrees above the normal for this time of the year. It is also around 10 degrees higher than the maximum temperature of 23.8 degrees recorded a week ago on February 13.

The city has seen a steady rise in temperatures over the past few days with the maximum temperature settling at around 31.5 degrees on Sunday. The minimum temperature early on Monday was also two degrees above normal, settling at 13.1 degrees Celsius.

The maximum temperature is likely to remain above 30 degrees Celsius for the rest of the week. The IMD forecast indicates that the maximum temperature is likely to remain at around 33 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday before dropping marginally to around 31 degrees on Thursday and Friday.

The higher-than-normal maximum temperatures for February comes close on the heels of what was Delhi’s coldest January in about a decade. The average minimum temperature in January this year was the lowest for the month since 2013.

Last year, the highest maximum temperature recorded in February was 28.4 degrees, while it was 33.2 degrees in February 2021 and 27.8 degrees in February 2020.

Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, IMD, said that fewer western disturbances have been affecting the plains of northwest India this month, contributing to higher temperatures. “We saw rainfall at the end of January and since then western disturbances have only been affecting the western Himalayan region, not the plains of northwest India. Even in these regions, only light rainfall or snowfall activity was seen. Cloudiness has been less, the sky is clear and sunlight has been reaching the surface, resulting in a rise in temperatures. A change in wind direction may bring a slight fall in temperature over the next few days, but not that much,” Srivastava said.

Delhi has seen a 100% deficit in rainfall for the month of February so far, when the normal for the month till February 20 is 16.6 mm.