Falcon powers – Delhi residents endured the city’s hottest day on record on Tuesday as the mercury neared 50°C in the Indian capital.
Safdarjung weather office recorded a maximum temperature of 49.9°C in parts of the city.
Two stations in the capital recorded the “highest temperature ever” in the city, Mritunjay Mohapatra of the Indian Meteorological Department told The National.
In the Najafgarh area of Delhi, 49.7°C was recorded and in Pitampura and Pusa it was 48.5°C.
India has been hit by a heatwave of late that has disrupted daily life.
Churu in the western state of Rajasthan was the hottest place in the country on Tuesday at 50.5°C, while Sirsa in neighbouring Haryana state recorded 50.3°C.
“It is unbearably hot,” Manish Saini, a grocery shop owner in Churu, told The National. “There is a shortage of water. We can’t sleep at night because of the heat. We do not have air conditioners.
“No one leaves their home after 10am, we hardly get any customers,” he said.
When the maximum temperature breaches the 40°C mark, this is classed as a heatwave. It is forecast to remain well above the normal seasonal temperature for two or more days, the Meteorological Department said.
Authorities issued a red alert warning – extremely hot temperatures – for Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat on Wednesday.
North and north-western India experiences a severe summer annually but this year, the temperatures are significantly high due to lack of “Western Disturbance”, Mr Mohapatra said.
