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Delhi - Climate &
Seasons
The city has an extreme climate. December and January are chilly with night times lows of 4 °C. The city has spring months in February and March. The summer months of May & June are scorchingly hot with mercury soaring to a high of 46 °C. The city does not have much of rainy season. The monsoon lasts from July to September. The climate of Delhi isn’t much to write home about. When planning a trip remember that the city is best in winter and in its fleeting spring. About 160 kilometres south of the Himalayas Delhi feels every chilly blast that lashes the snowcapped mountains. While heat-oriented Delhiites find the winter a bit trying, foreigners seem to revel in temperatures ranging from 3*C to 21*C. The season is marked with light rainfall, frosty winds and an all-enveloping fog. But the cold months of December-February soon give way to the balmy month of March. Birds sing out a full-throated welcome to Basant Bahar (the bloom of spring) as fresh grass and blossoms burst forth and trees sprout shiny new coats. Sometimes, when Delhiites are in luck, the spring gets an extra lease of life and tarries till mid-April. Hot on its heels comes May
which turns Delhi into a scalding charcoal tandoor (a large round clay
oven). Thanks to its distance from the sea, Delhi bears the brunt of an
extreme type of continental climate. The summer consequently is as hot
as the winter is cold. The mercury, itself in danger of dehydration, soars
to 47*C. One has to be carefully prepared before venturing out as heat
strokes and dehydration are the order of the day. Violent dust storms and
hot winds – locally dubbed loo – are part and parcel of the hot and dry
Delhi summer.
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