Delhiites delight as mercury remains subdued

Fri, May 9 10:34 PM

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The weather gods seem to have fell in love with the national capital. For the fourth straight day, the mercury remained below the season's normal, allowing the residents to heave a sigh of relief from the scorching summer sun.

The maximum temperature in Delhi Friday was 37.8 degrees Celsius, one degree below what is normal for this time of the season, while the minimum temperature was recorded 24.8 degrees Celsius.

While the Delhiites are enjoying the reprieve from the blistering sun, the respite clearly is of short-term. For, a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) official told IANS that the water crisis in Delhi is set to become acute despite efforts to increase supply.

'The city's current requirement is around 4,275 million litres per day (MLD), while we are able to supply only around 3,375 MLD. Since the city gets 300,000 to 400,000 migrants every year from different parts of the country, the burden on scarce water resources will increase manifold,' the official said, requesting anonymity.

If the official is to be believed, the city will face a deficit of over 1,000 MLD - higher than the current figure of around 900 MLD - by 2021.

In Gurgaon, Delhi's suburban industrial hub in Haryana, the people continued to reel under unprecedented power crunch Friday and the situation looked unlikely to improve in days to come.

'As of now we don't have a clue from where the shortfall will be met. This not a local problem but of the entire northern region,' an official of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) said.

In Sirsa, Haryana, intermittent rain and hailstorm brought relief from the scorching heat to the people. Farmers were happy as the rising mercury and growing incidents of fires in field during the past few days had left them worried.

In southern Orissa, three people were injured in a village in Ganjam district Thursday following strong winds of 80-100 km per hour speeds. A number of trees were uprooted and some houses were damaged, local Dharitri newspaper reported.

The Met Office said Friday the present trend of the weather would continue for at least two more days in the northwest and central parts of the country.

The maximum daytime temperatures would likely remain at or under 40 degrees Celsius over most parts of the northwest and central India, it added.

Isolated to scattered thundershowers accompanied with squall are expected during the next 48 hours in the region extending from Bihar to northern Andhra Pradesh.

The current meteorological analysis suggests that with the strengthening of southwesterly winds, widespread rainfall is likely over Andaman and Nicobar Islands during next three days, the weatherman said.

The highest maximum temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius in the country was recorded at Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Nizamabad (Andhra Pradesh).

The following were the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall figure in major cities for the 24 hours till Friday evening, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average. City Maximum Temperature (C) Minimum Temperature (C) Rainfall (mm)

Delhi 37.8 (-1) 24.8 (0) Nil

Mumbai 33.0 (0) 26.2 (0) Nil

Chennai 39.9 (+3) 27.6 (+1) Nil

Kolkata 36.7 (+1) 24.1 (-2) Nil

Ahmedabad 38.2 (-4) 27.1 (+1) Nil

Bangalore 32.7 (0) 21.2 (0) Nil

Bhopal 38.4 (-3) 22.6 (-2) Nil

Bhubaneshwar 37.0 (-1) 26.5 (+1) Nil

Chandigarh 36.0 (0) 23.8 (0) Nil

Dehradun 33.4 ( -2) 22.6 (+3) Nil

Goa (Panjim) 34.6 (+2) 25.8 (0) Nil

Guwahati 33.8 (+3) 21.9 (0) Nil

Hyderabad 40.8 (+2) 25.5 (-1) Nil

Jaipur 37.2 (-3) 17.2 (-7) Nil

Lucknow 38.6 (-1) 25.7 (+2) Nil

Nagpur 42.5 (0) 25.6 (-1) Nil

Patna 39.4 (0) 25.4 (+1) Nil

Pune 36.2 (-2) 23.0 (+1) Nil

Srinagar 24.6 (0) 12.2 (0) 0.9

Thiruvananthapuram 33.3 (+1) 25.9 (+1) Nil

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