New Delhi: The national capital is expected to experience heatwave for the sixth consecutive day today as the weather department has forecasted a maximum day temperature of 42 degree Celsius, reports news agency PTI. 


Delhiites woke up to a warm morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 22.5 degree Celsius, two degrees above season’s average. While the relative humidity was 25 percent, said an official from the Indian Meteorological Department, quoted by the news agency. 


On Monday too, Delhi had logged a maximum temperature of  42.6 degree Celsius which was the highest for the month of April in the last five years, according to the IMD. 


It is also the first time in 72 years that Delhi has recorded such a high temperature in the first half of April, the weather department said.


As per data by the IMD, the national capital has recorded five heatwave days in the month of April so far this year while six such heatwave days were recorded in April 2017. 


Cloudy conditions will bring slight relief from the searing heat today.


The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert warning of a severe heatwave for Delhi indicating that the city is not going to have respite from heat wave conditions anytime soon, news agency PTI had reported. 


The IMD uses four colour codes — green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action) — for weather warnings. For the plains, a heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius and at least 4.5 notches above normal. A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4 notches, according to the IMD.