New Delhi, May 2 (IANS): Starting with a pleasant morning, mercury hovering around 40-42 degrees Celsius during the day and light windy late evening marked Sunday for Delhi-NCR when most places witnessed little lower maximum temperatures compared to the scorching Saturday and Friday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted partly cloudy sky with dust storm/thunderstorm, accompanied with gusty winds (speed about 40-50 kmph), with maximum and minimum temperatures to be around 39 and 25 degrees Celsius for Safdarjung station - Delhi's base station - on Monday.

Except for Aya Nagar in southeast Delhi that recorded 44.6 degrees Celsius, rest other stations in Delhi recorded maximum temperatures below 42.1 degrees Celsius.

At 47.1 degrees Celsius, Bikaner in Rajasthan recorded the highest maximum temperature across India while over two dozen places recorded maximum temperatures over 44 degrees Celsius, IMD said.

Meanwhile, apart from parts of Delhi, heat wave conditions prevailed over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, southern parts of Uttar Pradesh, Kutch region in Gujarat and east Rajasthan, the IMD said, adding, "there would be abatement of heat over this region".

Heat wave conditions in isolated parts over Vidarbha would continue till May 3 and over Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and west Rajasthan on May 2.

The reason, as IMD has already predicted, is the fresh Western Disturbance over Western Himalayan Region that will bring isolated light rainfall over the plains of Northwest India, including Delhi-NCR, for the next four days.