Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in a post on X reacted on the news making rounds that Delhi's Mungeshpur recorded a temperature of 52.3 degree celsius on Wednesday (May 29). The minister said that it is still not confirmed if the temperature was 52.3°C as reported and that the IMD has been asked to verify the claim.
"It is not official yet. Temperature of 52.3°C in Delhi is very unlikely. Our senior officials in IMD have been asked to verify the news report. The official position will be stated soon," said the minister in his post.
The IMD is also reported to have said that the unprecedented temperature recorded could be due to an error in the sensor and that it is being looked into by the agency.
"Since, summer of 2022, IMD installed Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) network and made operational reporting of temperature and rainfall observations for 15 new locations spread over different parts of Delhi and NCR (in addition to manual departmental stations)," IMD said in its notification.
"The maximum temperature as recorded on 29th May, 2024 by 5 departmental observatories (Safdarjung, Palam, Ayanagar, Ridge and Lodi Road) and 15 AWS are given in Table 1. The maximum temperature over Delhi NCR varied from 45.2" to 49.1°C in different parts of city, Mungeshpur reported 52.9°C as an outlier compared to other stations. It could be due to error in the sensor or the local factor. IMD is examining the data and sensors," the IMD statement said.
Delhi, which has been reeling under intense heat condition and had recorded 49.9 degree celsius in Narela on Tuesday, reportedly went past the 50°C mark on Wednesday with temperature in Mungeshpur reaching 52.3°C. However, that number is now being checked by the IMD.
