Mercury subdued, but humidity causes people to sweat

After weeks of blistering heat, temperatures remained subdued on Monday in most parts of north India after scattered rains, but relatively high levels of humidity caused much discomfort to the people.

Delhiites sweated it out as the maximum humidity settled at 78 per cent, while the temperature remained close to the 40 degree mark in the parched city to settle at 40.3 degrees.

The minimum temperature was 28.8 degrees, a notch above normal and 2.2 degrees up from previous day’s 26.6 degrees celsius.

Heavy showers coupled with thunderstorm lashed Dharamsala and its surrounding areas also in the morning, even as the sky later turned sunny as the day progressed. Dharamshala received 59 mm rain, followed by Jogindernagar at 41 mm, Pandoh 30 mm, Banjar 16 mm and Baldwara 15 mm.

There was some respite from sizzling heat as moderate to heavy rains and thundershowers during the past 24 hours brought down the mercury in various parts of Uttar Pradesh. While Barabanki and Fatehpur received 5 cm of rainfall, Bahraich and Sitapur recorded 4 and 3 cm of rainfall respectively, Met department said.

The temperatures settled below normal in various places including Kanpur, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Allahabad, Lucknow, Bareilly, Agra, Varanasi, Moradabad and Meerut divisions.

Overcast conditions at some places brought a breather for people in Punjab and Haryana also, where mercury remained subdued for the third consecutive day on Monday. Narnaul and Hisar registered maximum temperature of 42.5 and 42 degrees, while Amritsar recorded the highest maximum temperature in Punjab at 40 degrees celsius.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, down by two degrees, the Met department said here.

Rajasthan continued to reel under intense heat, with mercury settling well above 40 degrees in most places.

Churu was the hottest place with a maximum of 46.3 degree celsius, followed by Sriganganagar at 45.6 degrees, Bikaner 45.4, Barmer 44, Jaisalmer 43.9, Jodhpur 43.6, Kota 43.5 and Jaipur 43.1 degrees celsius.

Isolated areas in Kota and Udaipur divisions, however, received light rains during past 24 hours. Capital Jaipur recorded 4.8 mm of rainfall this evening.