NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The record temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius announced this week in New Delhi was exaggerated by three degrees, the Indian government announced on Saturday, blaming a faulty sensor.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) investigated this temperature reading Wednesday at the station in Mungeshpur, a densely populated district of New Delhi, “and discovered a thermometer error of 3°”, declared Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Science of Earth, sharing on the X network the conclusions of an interim report.
He did not specify what the new temperature estimate was for Wednesday at this recording station.
The IMD said in a statement that the temperature of 52.9° “is not correct due to the sensor malfunction”.
While India is facing an intense heatwave, the temperature record in New Delhi was still well and truly broken this week with 49° and 49.1° recorded at two different stations, whose sensors were checked according to the IMD.
The previous record was 48.4° in May 1998, according to the IMD draft report.
(Written by Krishn Kaushik, French version Bertrand Boucey)
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