Hangover of rainy, windy Thursday keeps Delhi cool

Following the impact of intense showers and gusty winds on Thursday night, the temperatures in the city remained below normal on Friday. However, no rain was recorded on Friday.

The rain also helped improve the Capital’s air quality with the air quality index (AQI) dipping to the “satisfactory” range from “moderate” a day earlier.

Safdarjung, which is representational of Delhi’s weather, recorded a maximum temperature of 34.9 degrees Celsius (°C) – five degrees below normal and two degrees lower than what it was a day earlier. The station received 1.6mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period till 8:30am on Friday. However, two weather stations – Pusa (47.2mm) and Palam (22.2mm) — logged moderate rainfall during the same period.

Rainfall below 2.4mm is considered very light rainfall while the range for moderate rainfall is 15.6mm to 64.4mm

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast the possibility of very light rain across Delhi-NCR on Saturday morning.

“The impact of the western disturbance is gradually reducing, and no rain was recorded on Friday. The next spell of rain is expected on Saturday morning, but it will largely be drizzle to very light showers,” said IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava, adding there was a possibility of drizzle on Monday after that.

“On Sunday, chances of rain are quite less. Despite the western disturbance weakening, we will continue to see cloudiness,” he said, adding that the month would end with the maximum temperature below 40°C.

On Friday, Delhi’s highest maximum was recorded at the Sports Complex station in Akshardham, where it touched 37°C. The maximum temperatures in Gurugram and Noida were 34.4°C and 35.3°C respectively.

There was a dip in Delhi’s minimum temperature as well on Friday, with it being recorded at 20.5°C – six degrees below normal. On Thursday, it stood at 22.6°C while it was 25.4°C a day before that.

Meanwhile, rain and strong winds on Thursday helped Delhi’s air quality return to the “satisfactory” range on Friday. The AQI stood at 98 as per Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) national bulletin – a dip from Wednesday’s “moderate” reading of 106 at 4pm. The last time Delhi’s AQI was “satisfactory” was on May 2, when it was 76, CPCB data showed.

Forecasts show the AQI is likely to return to “moderate” by Saturday, remaining in this range till Tuesday.

The CPCB classifies an AQI between 0-50 as “good”, between 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, between 101 and 200 as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 as “poor”, between 301 and 400 as “very poor” and over 400 as “severe”.