April this year in Delhi has ended on a cooler-than-usual note with the maximum temperature settling at 28.7 degrees Celsius Sunday, 10 degrees below the normal for this time of the year. The average maximum temperature and the highest maximum temperature recorded in April this year are similar to what was seen in April 2020. The average maximum temperature for the month of April this year was 35.32 degrees Celsius, well below the average of 40.2 degrees in 2022 and 37.3 degrees in 2021. In 2020, April recorded an average of 35.3 degrees Celsius, according to data from the IMD. The highest maximum temperature in April this year was 40.6 degrees Celsius while it was 43.5 degrees last year, 42.2 degrees in 2021, and 40.1 degrees in 2020. The Safdarjung weather station, which serves as a marker for the city, recorded no heatwave days at all in April this year. This is in contrast with nine heatwave days in April last year. Isolated heatwave conditions were recorded in some parts of the city in April. On Friday, cloudy skies and rainfall in some parts of the city ensured a below normal maximum temperature, with a western disturbance lying over central Pakistan bringing rainfall to northwest India. Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said that five western disturbances affected Delhi this April. He said a maximum temperature which was lower than this year’s figure was recorded in April 2015 when mercury plunged to 26 degrees Celsius. In April, Delhi recorded 20.1 mm of rainfall, which is around 23% above the normal or long period average of 16.3 mm for the month. In contrast, last year, Delhi recorded only 0.3 mm of rainfall during the period. The last time Delhi saw a higher amount of rainfall in April than this year was 26.9 mm in 2017. Cloudy skies, rainfall, thunderstorms likely over next 5 days: IMD Another active western disturbance is likely to affect northwest India from the night of May 1, according to an IMD bulletin issued Sunday. Cloudy skies, rainfall and thunderstorms are likely over the next five days in Delhi. Very light rain, thundershowers and strong winds are likely from Monday to Wednesday, while very light rainfall or a drizzle is likely on Thursday and Friday, going by the IMD forecast. The maximum temperature is set to remain below 30 degrees over the next three days, but could rise to around 34 degrees Celsius by May 6. Srivastava said that cloudiness will persist on account of the western disturbance though the city may not receive much rainfall over the week ahead. In a forecast issued last week, the IMD had said that northwest India is likely to see normal to below normal maximum temperatures and normal to above normal rainfall in May. Capital saw 52 good to moderate AQI days this year – highest since 2020 On air quality, an analysis of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) said that Delhi has recorded 52 days so far this year when the AQI was in the ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ categories. This means that Delhi’s AQI was at 200 or below on 52 days, which, according to CAQM, is the highest number of such days in three years. 2020 saw 68 such days and there was a lockdown at the end of March onwards. Delhi witnessed maximum number of days with ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ air quality during the first four months of 2023, when compared to the corresponding period over the past seven years from 2016, “barring periods of very low anthropogenic, industrial and commercial activities during the Covid-19 lockdown year 2020”, the CAQM said. Delhi saw eight such days in 2016, 29 days in 2017, 32 in 2018, 44 in 2019, 31 in 2021, and 27 in 2022.
