India's Meteorological Department says the record temperature could be a sensor “error” May 30, 2024

Boys sit under a makeshift awning on a street on a hot summer's day in New Delhi (Arun SANKAR)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

India's Meteorological Department says the record temperature could be a sensor “error”

India's government-run meteorological department said Wednesday that a station's measurement showing a potentially record temperature in the capital may have been caused by a fault in the measuring equipment.

“Mungeshpur reported 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.2 Fahrenheit) as a discrepant value compared to other stations,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement, referring to a station in a Delhi suburb.

“This could be due to an error in the sensor or a local factor. The IMD is examining the data and the sensors.”

The department said it operates five major weather monitoring sites and 15 automatic weather stations - including the one in Mungeshpur - which make temperature and rainfall observations across the capital.

Apart from Mungeshpur, these sites recorded a maximum temperature in Delhi on Wednesday that “ranged from 45.2ºC to 49.1ºC”, the statement added.

On Tuesday, two stations in Delhi, in Mungeshpur and Narela, recorded readings of 49.9 degrees Celsius.

It was not clear whether these readings were also in question.

In 2022, Delhi's temperatures were recorded as reaching 49.2°C.

In 2016, 51°C was recorded in Phalodi, on the edge of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, the highest confirmed temperature in India.

“The temperature in urban areas varies from place to place,” the bureau added, saying that the variations could be due to factors such as “proximity to water bodies, arid lands”, parks, or dense housing.

Delhi continues to swelter in a heatwave. The IMD this week issued a red alert warning for the health of the capital, which has an estimated population of over 30 million people.

The alert warns that there is a “very high likelihood of heat illness and heatstroke developing in all ages”, with “extreme care required for vulnerable people”.

pjm/sco