NEW DELHI: For the second day in a row, Delhi continued to sizzle under a sweltering 41.6 degree Celsius, six degrees above normal, making Monday the hottest April 12 in the past five years. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claims that a rising trend in temperatures not only in the country but across the world — in India, 2009 was the warmest year ever recorded while March 2010 was the second hottest March since 1900 — strongly suggested that this was the influence of climate change.
While the maximum remained steady, the minimum rose by 0.1 degree to settle at 24.5 degrees Celsius, five degrees above normal. The highest maximum in Delhi on April 12 in the last few years was 38 degrees Celsius, recorded in 2007.
While earlier there were indications of isolated rain over Delhi and its neighbouring areas, by Monday evening the Met department was sure that the capital would not be affected by the western disturbance that was raging over the western Himalayas. "The temperature over northwest India may go down by a degree or so over the next two days but after that there will again be a surge in the heat," said a Met official.
Delhi, along with several parts of Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan, UP, Jharkhand, interior Orissa and some parts of Himachal Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Bihar and Vidarbha, was in the grip of a severe heat wave.
The highest temperature to be recorded in the country was 45.6 degree Celsius at Sambalpur in Orissa.
Some respite was expected for Haryana and Punjab as isolated rain and thundershowers were likely to affect the region around Wednesday but Delhi was not likely to reap any benefits from it. The Met department has predicted that Delhi will see above normal temperatures for most of April and lesser rainfall. The trend is also predictably pointing towards a hotter summer.
Citing several studies, including one by NASA which stated that globally, 2009 was the hottest year ever and 2000-2009 was the warmest decade, CSE said: "There is enough scientific evidence of long term changes, including rise in temperatures, happening not only in India but across the world, which suggest the influence of climate change."
S K Dash, an atmospheric scientist at IIT-Delhi, reported on temperature changes in various parts of the country in the past century. Most importantly, he said, in western Himalayas the maximum had gone up by .9 degree Celsius while the minimum had risen by .5 degree Celsius. In northwest India, which includes Delhi, the maximum had gone up by .6 degree Celsius while the minimum had gone up by 0.2 degrees Celsius.
Based on a study by IITM scientist K Krishna Kumar which says that the increase in mean temperatures had been higher since the 1970s, CSE claims that along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's assessment report 4, "this higher increase in temperature since 1970 corresponds with the accelerated increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2."
