The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said the station measurement showing a potentially record-breaking temperature in Delhi's Mungeshpur may have been due to a fault in the measuring equipment.
"Mungeshpur reported 52.9 degrees Celsius as an outlier compared to other stations," IMD said in a statement, referring to a station in a Delhi suburb.
"It could be due to error in the sensor or the local factor. IMD is examining the data and sensors."
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who had questioned the reading earlier, calling it ‘very unlikely’, shared the official statement by IMD on X (formerly Twitter).
The Met Department said it operates five major weather monitoring sites and 15 automatic weather stations – including the one in Mungeshpur – which take temperature and rainfall observations across the national capital.
Apart from Mungeshpur, those sites recorded a maximum temperature over Delhi on Wednesday that "varied from 45.2°C to 49.1°C", IMD added.
On Tuesday, two stations in Delhi – Mungeshpur and Narela – posted readings of 49.9 degrees Celsius.
The weather agency, however, did not mention if those readings were also in question.
In 2022, Delhi temperatures were recorded to have hit 49.2°C. While in 2016, 51°C was recorded in Phalodi on the edge of Rajasthan's Thar Desert, the highest confirmed temperature in India.
"Temperature over urban areas varies from place to place," IMD added, saying variations could be due to factors such as the "proximity to water bodies, barren land", parks or dense housing.
The IMD this week issued a red alert health notice for the national capital, which has an estimated population of more than 30 million people.
The alert warns there is a "very high likelihood of developing heat illness and heat stroke in all ages", with "extreme care needed for vulnerable people".
