Heat wave grips north; Delhi records hottest July day since'12

With monsoon continuing to play truant, there was no respite from the heat for the people of North India today even as the national capital recorded the hottest day of July for the last two years.
According to MeT department, it was the hottest day of July since two years for Delhiites with maximum temperature settling five notches above normal at 40.5 degree Celsius.
"Last year, the mercury only soared as high as 39.2 degree C while in 2012 it had touched 43.5 degree C. Usually, July witnesses monsoon. The upward trend in temperature is mainly due to elusive rains," the weatherman said.

Nights have also been warm of late with mercury almost touching 30 degree Celsius.
The dry patch, however, has caused some relief as it has caused humidity to drop down from extremely high levels of 80 to 90 per cent experienced during the last week. Humidity levels today oscillated between 64 and 37 per cent.
Barring light rains at isolated areas in Rajasthan, weather remained mainly hot and dry in the state.

Churu, which was the hottest place in the state, recorded a maximum of 43.4 degrees Celsius while the day temperature across the state settled above 39 degree Celsius-mark.

With little or no rainfall in Punjab and Haryana in last few days, the maximum temperatures in the two states settled well above the 40 degree Celsius mark.
Chandigarh residents experienced a hot day at 39 degrees C, four degrees above normal.
Bhiwani and Hisar in Haryana braved the hot weather recording above normal maximums of 41.8 degree Celsius and 42 degree Celsius respectively. Narnaul sizzled at a high of 41 deg Celsius, up by three degrees.
People in the two states can expect no immediate relief from the hot weather conditions over the next two days.
In Punjab, heat wave was back at Amritsar, where residents braved a hot day at 41.4 degree Celsius.

People of Patiala and Ludhiana also got no relief from the sweltering heat and the two towns recorded respective maximums of 40.2 degree Celsius and 39.6 degree Celsius.
In Uttar Pradesh, light to moderate rains occurred at isolated places in the eastern part of the state.