Delhi got enveloped under a thick layer of dust for the third consecutive day today. This has worsened the air quality of the national capital and its adjoining cities, thereby forcing Delhiites to come out of their houses wearing masks again.
The severity of the dust over Delhi can be traced out form the fact that the air quality has worsened and has reached to hazardous levels with the PM10 being recorded at more than 700 μg/m3.
The reason for this layer of dust can be attributed with the winds blowing from Rajasthan and from the neighboring Pakistan that are hotter with soaring mercury levels. The weather over these regions has remained continuously dry. Due to the absence of rains, the dust and sand over these regions are loose in nature.
Moreover, the winds blowing over the region are strong in nature, and thus, these are transporting the loose dust from the sand areas over most parts of Northwest India, including over Delhi.
According to Skymet Weather, this layer of dust is the reason that Delhi’s temperatures have been witnessing a rising trend.
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As these winds are dry in nature, they lack the moisture content and thus, the dust is settling in the upper atmosphere and is not able to settle down. This dust cover is restricting the escape of the outgoing longwave radiations which is getting trapped in the atmosphere, due to this, the night temperatures have shot up.
Today, the minimum recorded by the Safdarjung Observatory was 5 degrees above the normal at 33 degrees Celsius, meanwhile, Palam Observatory recorded the minimum temperatures at 31.8 degrees Celsius, which is 4 degrees beyond the normal.
Additionally, the short-wave radiation, from the Sun also penetrated through this layer of dust, enhancing the maximums and making the days warmer as well.
Generally, Delhi records the daytime high at 40 degrees Celsius during the initial days of June, which dips to 38 degrees Celsius during mid-June and finally, coming to the fag end of the month, the maximums usually settle near the 37-degree mark.
However, this time, the mercury levels of Delhi are being constantly getting arrested near or above the 40-degree mark.
Skymet Weather reiterates that any relief from these dusty skies can be expected only when wind reversal takes place, or the city experiences any rain or thundershowers which is not expected before the weekend.
Hence, as of now also, these dusty skies would keep on bothering the Delhiites as rain or thundershowers over Delhi and NCR is expected around June 17 or 18
The month of June is the last pre-Monsoon month for the city and Monsoon usually makes an onset over Delhi and NCR during the fag end of the month, around June 29. The average monthly rains for Delhi stands at 82 mm and till date, Delhi’s Palam Observatory has recorded 27 mm of rains, meanwhile, 5 mm of rains were recorded by Safdarjung Observatory.
Image Credit: DNA India
Any information taken from here should be credited to skymetweather.com