Delhi Heatwave Set To Roar Back From Sunday; IMD Issues Severe Heat Alert

Saturday’s brief respite from thunderstorms and 81 kmph squalls ends as maximum temperatures head back toward 46°C across north India this week.

Add businessleague.in as a Preferred Source

Also Read | 19TH ROZGAR MELA: WORLD WANTS TO JOIN INDIA’S ‘VIKAS YATRA’, SAYS PM MODI

Relief from Delhi’s punishing spell of summer heat is proving aggressively short-lived. Just hours after localized thunderstorms and sudden afternoon showers swept through the national capital on Saturday, the India Meteorological Department issued a stark warning confirming that extreme heatwave conditions will reclaim the region starting Sunday morning.

The weather office clarified that the broader atmospheric system that triggered Saturday’s brief respite has already moved southeastward out of the National Capital Region (NCR). The incoming high-pressure system will trap heat over Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh from May 24 to May 29, with severe heatwave pockets expected to push structural power grids and local water supplies to their absolute limits.

Also Read | 19TH ROZGAR MELA: WORLD WANTS TO JOIN INDIA’S ‘VIKAS YATRA’, SAYS PM MODI

Saturday’s High-Velocity Intermission

The transition on Saturday afternoon brought a dramatic, albeit temporary, change of pace for sweltering residents. Ferocious dust storms and heavy squalls swept across the capital, with wind speeds peaking at a massive 81 kmph at Pusa Road, 56 kmph at Palam, and 35 kmph near Pragati Maidan. Swirling dust clouds caused a near-instantaneous drop in visibility at Palam Airport, plummeting from 3,500 meters to 1,500 meters within a single hour.

The system managed to dump isolated rain across several residential blocks, recording 2 mm of precipitation at the Pusa station and 0.2 mm along the Ridge. While neighboring Noida and Ghaziabad caught a refreshing cool breeze under dark grey skies, weather officials had cautioned locals to remain indoors until the active lightning vectors subsided. Look, a couple of millimeters of rain on top of bone-dry asphalt does nothing but drive relative humidity through the roof—turning a dry heat into a suffocating greenhouse environment within hours.

Nights Remain Unbearably Warm

The true crisis of this current layout is the total absence of nocturnal cooling. Safdarjung, Delhi’s apex weather observatory, logged a minimum temperature of 28.4°C on Saturday morning—nearly two notches above seasonal normals. Earlier on Thursday, the city clocked its first official “warm night” of the season with a minimum of 31.9°C, marking the most oppressive May night recorded in Delhi since 2012.

When the ambient night temperature refuses to drop below 30°C, the human body cannot shed core heat built up during daylight exposure. Health officials have urged regional authorities to implement active heat action plans, warning that infant and elderly demographics face elevated risks of heatstroke. Residents are strictly advised to avoid unnecessary outdoor transit between 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM and maintain rigorous hydration protocols as the heat baseline settles back over the capital.