Delhi gets brief rain respite, heatwave to prevail for next 4 days

Delhiites were in for a pleasant surprise when a sudden spell of rain lashed the city on Wednesday evening, bringing the soaring temperatures several notches. The city recorded maximum temperature below 40 degrees Celsius, that had constantly ranged around 44 to 45 degrees for much part of the day.

Earlier, the forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Delhi might receive rain accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorm by Wednesday evening.

Several other parts of the country, including Guwahati in Assam, parts of Himachal Pradesh, several parts of Mumbai as well as some cities in Karnataka also witnessed rains, providing much-needed relief from heatwave conditions.

However, the weather department has said that heatwave-like conditions were likely to prevail over the next three to four days in several parts of north, north-west and central India.

"Heat wave conditions are very likely in isolated pockets of East Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar during June 5–9 in Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Rajasthan on June 5; Odisha on June 5 and 6, 2024," the weather department said in a morning bulletin on Wednesday.

Despite a slight dip in temperatures lately, the maximum temperatures have hovered between 43-45 degrees Celsius in some parts of north Rajasthan, south Haryana, north Madhya Pradesh and southeast Madhya Pradesh, and in the range of 41-43 degrees Celsius in many parts of Punjab, remaining parts of Haryana, Delhi, south Rajasthan, parts of west Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Telangana and south interior Odisha over the past week.