File Photo: A boy jumps into the water at the Nizamuddin Baoli, a stepwell built circa 1321-1322 that holds water from an underground spring, near the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in New Delhi.
Delhiites continued to reel under hot and humid conditions as the maximum temperature settled at 40.5 degree Celsius on Wednesday, the hottest day of July in two years.
According to MeT department, the day temperature was five degrees above normal.
"Last year, the mercury only soared as high as 39.2 degree Celsius while in 2012 it had touched 43.5 degree Celsius.
Usually, July witnesses monsoon and the current upward trend in temperature was mainly due to elusive rains," a MeT department official said.
Nights have also been warm of late as mercury almost touched 30 degree Celsius mark.
The minimum was recorded at 29.6 degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal.
On Tuesday, the day temperature was recorded at 40.3 degrees Celsius, four notches above normal and the minimum settled at 28.6 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal.
The dry patch, however, has brought some relief as it has caused humidity to drop down from extremely high of 80 to 90 per cent experienced during the last week.
"Humidity levels today hovered between 64 and 37 per cent," the official said.
Similar weather conditions are likely to prevail in the city during the next 24 hours as the weatherman has predicted partly cloudy sky while the maximum and minimum are expected to settle around 41 and 30 degree respectively.