Parts of Delhi receive light rain, temperature may dip again soon

New Delhi

Parts of the Capital on Monday morning received light rainfall, due to the effect of a new western disturbance that also brought fresh snowfall to the mountains and is likely to lead to a dip in temperatures from Tuesday due to the return of cold northwesterly winds to the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

But the rainfall, which was “trace” at most locations, failed to improve the air quality—it was languishing in the upper reaches of the “very poor” category, clocking a 24-hour average reading of 335, marginally down from an AQI of 339 recorded a day before, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) daily bulletin.

On Sunday, the Centre for Air Quality Management in NCR revoked curbs under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) due to a gradual improvement in air quality and an expectation of further improvement.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet said moisture in the region will reduce from Tuesday onwards, with the wind direction to become northwesterly. “Winds will start to pick up again and since these will be blowing from snowclad mountains where fresh snow has been recorded, it will impact the plains and lead to a sharp dip in minimum,” he said.

IMD officials said Delhi’s minimum temperature may dip to around 5 degrees Celsius (°C) by January 10. A second western disturbance is expected to influence the region from January 11, with chances of isolated rain once again on January 11 and 12, they said.

The Safdarjung observatory, which is considered representative of Delhi’s weather, recorded “trace” rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Monday, with the Capital mostly recording overcast conditions and haziness. Light to very light rainfall was also logged in southwest, west and north Delhi, with the Palam observatory recording 1mm of rainfall till 8.30am on Monday, Najafgarh station clocking 2.5mm of rainfall, Pitampura station clocking 2mm of rainfall, Pusa station recording 0.5mm of rainfall and the Ridge station clocking “trace” rainfall.

Delhi continued to record fog in the early hours, but the four-day streak of zero-visibility days was broken due to decreased intensity. On Monday, the lowest visibility was 200 metres, which was recorded at the Palam observatory.

Although no flight diversions or cancellations were reported at the Delhi airport, over 300 delays were recorded, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.

IMD has forecast the impact of the western disturbance to be over by Tuesday, with strong northwesterly winds and clear skies likely to return to the region. However, it issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog in the region till January 8.

“These colder winds will lead to a dip in minimum temperature,” an IMD official said, adding that the minimum temperature in Delhi may touch 5°C by January 10.

The lowest minimum recorded so far this season is 4.5°C, on December 12, 2024. Historical data shows the minimum temperature in January can dip to between 1°C and 3°C.

In January 2024, the lowest minimum temperature was 3.3°C, which was recorded on January 15. In 2023, it was 1.4°C on January 16. The lowest minimum temperature in the last decade was 1.1°C, recorded on January 1, 2021.

Meanwhile, cloudy skies and rain also led to a drop in the maximum temperature. Delhi’s maximum temperature was 16.9°C, which was two degrees below normal and down from 18.6°C recorded a day earlier. The lowest maximum temperature across the city was 14.3°C, at Palam.

The minimum temperature on the day was 9.6°C, which was around three degrees above normal for this time of the year. IMD forecast the maximum temperature to rise to around 19-20°C by January 10.