Delhi swelters under heatwave, red alert issued

A woman sips on cold water for relief from heat in Delhi. Pic/PTI

The national capital on Tuesday recorded a minimum temperature of 33.8 degrees Celsius, six notches above the season's average. The weather department has predicted mainly clear sky and heatwave to severe heatwave conditions and strong surface winds.

The humidity was 61 per cent at 8.30 am. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 45 degrees Celsius, it stated. The threshold for a heat wave is met when the maximum temperature of a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in coastal areas, and 30 degrees in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.

A severe heat wave is declared if the departure from normal exceeds 6.4 notches. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Delhi. The IMD uses four colour codes for weather warnings - green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action).

Power ministry asks utilities to be on high alert

The power ministry on Tuesday said it has asked all utilities "to maintain a high state of alert and minimise forced outages of equipment" amid heatwave pushing electricity demand, especially in the northern region where Monsoon is yet to arrive. The country's northern region has been experiencing high electricity demand due to a prevailing heatwave since May 17, 2024, the ministry said in a statement.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever