Delhi and other states in North India will get a respite from heatwave for at least four days from Tuesday, India Meteorological Department senior Scientist RK Jenamani told ANI on Monday.

“Up to the next four days from May 17 onwards, there will be no heatwave over any area,” he told ANI. “Up to May 11, there was no significant heatwave except in West Rajasthan. This was mainly because of Asani Cyclone that the heatwave was surpassed, but from May 12, it intensified.”

For the plains, a heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature goes up to 40 degrees Celsius or more and is at least 4.5 degrees above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the maximum temperature crosses the 47-degree Celsius mark.

The Safdarjung Observatory, the city’s base weather station, may record a maximum temperature of 43 degrees Celsius on Monday, Jenamani said.

The scientist said that Sunday’s heatwave was the most severe but the temperature dropped by three to four degrees the next day in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

A severe heatwave had swept across Delhi on Sunday with the maximum temperature touching 49.2 degrees Celsius in the city’s Mungeshpur area. Najafgarh had recorded a temperature of 49.1 degrees Celsius.

Safdarjung Observatory had registered a temperature of 45.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday. It was five degrees above the normal and the highest this year so far. This was also the fifth heatwave in Delhi this summer season.

On Monday, the India Meteorological Department predicted a dust storm or a thunderstorm (gusty wind speed of 30-40 kilo metres per hour) in the Capital.

It said that a cyclonic circulation over Punjab and Haryana will lead to pre-monsoon activity in the region and is likely to cause thunder or dust storms in the Capital for the next two days, PTI reported.

Jenamani also told ANI that Monsoon arrived in Andaman sea and the southeast Bay of Bengal on Monday.

“We have given Kerala predictions,” he said. It [arrival of Monsoon] will be around 27 May.”

Delhi, as well as parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been experiencing record high temperatures over the past two months. In the last week of April, the city saw temperatures rise up to 46 degrees Celsius due to a heatwave.

The average maximum temperature in April for northwest and Central India was the highest in 122 years. The country had also witnessed the hottest March in 122 years since the India Meteorological Department started maintaining records.