Delhi weather | IMD attributes temperature reading of 52.9°C to malfunctioning sensor

The India Meteorological Department on Saturday said the temperature reading of 52.9 degrees Celsius by an automatic weather station (AWS) at Mungeshpur in northwest Delhi was due to a "malfunctioning sensor" and said that such devices deployed for weather observations will be examined.

The weather office had dispatched a team of experts to Mungeshpur after an AWS deployed there recorded a maximum temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius on May 29 to examine the device for errors, if any.

"The temperature sensor of AWS Mungeshpur is found to report about three degrees Celsius higher maximum temperature than the maximum temperature reported by the standard instrument," the IMD said and attributed the readings to "malfunctioning of the sensor" of the AWS.

Course correction

"We will examine AWS, course corrections, if any, will be carried out on an individual basis," said IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, adding that the faulty sensor of the Mungeshpur AWS would be replaced in a few days.

Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju shared a draft report on the Mungeshpur incident, which said the maximum temperature recorded by the AWS was three degrees higher than the standard instruments.

The report recommended that the surface instrument division at IMD Pune may examine and calibrate the AWS temperature sensors at periodic intervals of all the AWS.

It also recommended that a Factory Acceptance Test should be carried out in different temperatures before the installation of an AWS and called for routine maintenance of such devices installed across the country in a planned manner.

The IMD said AWS reading at Mungeshpur was an outlier compared to the temperature measured by other AWS and manual observatories in Delhi.

Five observatories

"Also, it exceeded the earlier all-time highest maximum temperature of 48.4 degrees Celsius at Palam on May 26, 1998," the weather office said.

On Friday, the IMD had said that a faulty sensor had led to higher temperature readings at the AWS installed by the Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth in Nagpur.

The maximum temperature in Delhi NCR is being monitored through five surface observatories and automatic weather stations.

The observations of maximum temperature on May 29 were between 45.2 to 49.1 degrees Celsius except the AWS installed at Mungeshpur, which reported a maximum temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius.

As of January this year, more than 800 AWS have been deployed across the country for weather observations.

(With agency inputs)