India’s capital hits record 52.3 degrees in fierce heatwave: ‘everyone wants to stay indoors’, ‘waiting for the monsoon’

Temperatures in India’s capital soared to a national record-high of 52.3 degrees Celsius (126.1 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, the government’s weather bureau said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which reported “severe heatwave conditions”, recorded the temperature in the Delhi suburb of Mungeshpur on Wednesday afternoon, smashing the previous national record in the desert of Rajasthan by more one degree Celsius.

The temperature was about ten degrees higher than expected, the second day of record-breaking heat, and well above the 2002 record of 49.2 degrees.

The IMD has issued a red alert health notice for the city, with an estimated population of more than 30 million people.

The alert warns there is a “very high likelihood of developing heat illness and heatstroke in all ages”, with “extreme care needed for vulnerable people”.

India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures, but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

But people on the streets of Delhi said there was little they could to do to avoid the heat.

“Everyone wants to stay indoors,” said snack-seller Roop Ram, 57, adding he struggled to sell his savoury fritters.

Ram, who lives with his wife and two sons in a cramped house, said they had a small fan, but that did little to cool them down.

They were counting down until the rainy season arrives in July.

“I am not sure what else we can do to cope,” he said. “We are just waiting for the monsoon.”

Rani, 60, who uses only one name, travels by bus for two hours each morning to sell jewellery to tourists at a makeshift street stall.

“It is definitely hotter, but there is nothing we can do about it,” she said, gulping water from a