India, April 30 -- Remember Mungeshpur, the Delhi neighbourhood that made the news after it recorded a maximum temperature of 52.9 degrees Celsius on May 29, 2024, the kind of number that makes one take a second look at the scale; and yes, it is Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was quick to dismiss the reading as a sensor error (the automatic weather station, or AWS, at the northwest Delhi neighbourhood recorded 49.9degC on May 28, 2024). It subsequently shuttered the station itself.

A year on, the station was hurriedly made operational, and the sensors replaced after a visit by Hindustan Times to the AWS, according to an official from IMD's AWS division. But IMD says that because the sensors are new, and need calibrat...