Several western disturbances ensured that Delhi got rain, thunderstorms, cloudy skies and strong winds. At 30.9 degrees Celsius, the city recorded the lowest mean maximum temperature in March since 2020, although, it was still about one degree above normal. In March 2020 and 2019, the mean maximum temperature was 28.2 degrees Celsius.
The India Meteorological Department data shows that the mean minimum temperature for March this year was 16.2 degrees Celsius. It was also the lowest average mean temperature in three years. The city logged 53.2mm rainfall in March, making it the wettest in three years. It was 206% more than the normal that is 17.4mm.
On March 1, the maximum temperature was 32.1 degrees Celsius. The first week was warm. The temperature dipped on most days in the second half because of the western disturbances.
On March 13, the city witnessed the hottest day of the month when the maximum temperature rose to 34.1 degrees Celsius. However, it dipped to 30.4 degrees Celsius on March 18 as the city got rain. On March 19, it fell further to 25.3 degrees Celsius.
“While the first half of the month was warm as the maximum temperature remained in the range of 31-33 degrees Celsius, the second half was better,” Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist and head of the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre at IMD, said. “No active western disturbance affected the plains in February. No western disturbance impacted the region in the first 10 days of March. However, four western disturbances affected the plains in the last 20 days of the month and they did not let the temperature rise much,” he said.
He added that the daytime temperature dipped on most days because the disturbances caused cloudy skies, rain and thunderstorms. Even strong winds blew on most days. This too affected the temperature.
This March saw seven rainy days. In 2022, there was no rain in Delhi in March.
Only two rainy days were recorded in March 2021 and Safdarjung, the city’s base station, logged 3.6 mm rainfall. In contrast, March 2020 witnessed 10 rainy days with 109.6 mm rainfall.
