IMD revives infamous weather station, but won't release data

Remember Mungeshpur, the Delhi neighbourhood that made the news after it recorded a maximum temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius on May 29, 2024, the kind of number that makes one take a second look at the scale; and yes, it is Celsius.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was quick to dismiss the reading as a sensor error (the automatic weather station, or AWS, at the northwest Delhi neighbourhood recorded 49.9°C on May 28, 2024). It subsequently shuttered the station itself.

A year on, the station was hurriedly made operational, and the sensors replaced after a visit by Hindustan Times to the AWS, according to an official from IMD's AWS division. But IMD says that because the sensors are new, and need calibration they do there will be no readings for Mungeshpur released through May, historically, the hottest month in Delhi.

Mungeshpur residents confirm that it has been getting hotter with every passing year; they have brought forward their crop cycle by a fortnight (Mungeshpur is essentially an urban village with agricultural land around it); and those who can afford air conditioners have bought them.

HT's reporting last year suggested that Mungeshpur could be a victim of the urban heat island effect- a phenomenon where buildings that are close to each other, and paved roads transmit heat, and prevent cooling at night - and while more studies are needed to establish this, the topography of the area has not changed, which means this year could be as hot.

With data from Mungeshpur not being released through May, all of northwest Delhi is unlikely to be represented in temperature measurements; the Narela AWS, around 10km from Mungeshpur, has also been inoperational since February this year.