India
While February is hotter than in previous years, Delhi experienced the most number of cold wave days in more than ten years in January.
Updated : Feb 25, 2021, 08:04 AM IST
After a chilly winter, Delhi is now experiencing record high temperatures in the month of February. The national capital witnessed its warmest day in as many as 15 years on Wednesday (February 24) as the temperatures reached nearly 34 degrees Celsius in some parts of the city. The maximum temperature in the city was seven degrees above normal.
Though the base weather of Delhi recorded at the Safdarjung weather station was 32.5 degrees Celsius, the mercury hit as high as 33.9 degrees Celsius at the sports complex station. It is keeping in trend with extreme weather events witnessed in the capital city in recent times.
3/4 Today, Safdarjung has reported maximum temperature of 32.5°C which is highest for the month of February after 2006 i.e. highest during last 15 years. All time highest maximum (since 1951) for February was observed on 26th February, 2006 when it was 34.1°C (Table 2 & 3).
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) February 24, 2021
While February is hotter than normal, Delhi experienced the most number of cold wave days in more than ten years in January. There were as many as seven cold wave days in January, which were the most in the month since 2008.
The data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) further shows that December was the second coldest in Delhi in 15 years. November earlier broke an old record when the mean minimum temperature reached 10.2 degrees Celsius. A similar temperature in November was earlier recorded in 1949. September in 2020 was unusually warm with a mean maximum temperature of 36.2 degrees Celsius. It was the hottest in almost 20 years. Now, February is witnessing a similar rise in temperatures.
According to the experts, the weather pattern in the last few months has a lot to do with the lack of western disturbances during the season. These western disturbances make it possible that the maximum and minimum temperatures in the region do not reach an extreme number, as they are known to regulate the temperature.
The IMD suggests that there were fewer western disturbances, with only one witnessed in January and one thus far in February.