Light rain in Delhi, Noida; brings respite from warm weather

Parts of Delhi, Noida and adjoining cities on Saturday witnessed light rainfall after a series of predictions for the same by the Met Department in the last few days.

The maximum and minimum temperatures will be around 29 and 16 degree Celsius, respectively on Saturday, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told news agency PTI.

The IMD in its latest weather forecast on Friday had said that “scattered to fairly widespread light/moderate rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning and gusty winds likely over Western Himalayan Region and Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on March 17-20”.

On Friday, Delhi witnessed a cloudy sky with the maximum temperature settling at 30.4 degrees Celsius, the IMD said, adding that the minimum temperature settled at 17.2 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season's average.

The relative humidity oscillated between 77 per cent and 47 per cent, the IMD said.

Officials on Thursday said very light to light rain could occur in NCR till Tuesday, with the maximum temperature likely to dip by 1-3 degrees Celsius in most parts of the region during this period.

Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist at IMD, said a western disturbance has begun influencing northwest India from Thursday, with peak rain activity in Delhi NCR expected on Friday and Saturday.

Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 34.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, making it the highest maximum so far this year. Prior to this, the highest was 34.1 degrees which was recorded on Sunday.

(With PTI inputs)