Capital set for a rainy weekend: Met officials

The IMD has forecast a marginal reduction in rain intensity from Friday, with very light to light rainfall expected till Sunday.

Most parts of the Capital witnessed moderate showers on Thursday, while isolated parts recorded heavy rainfall, leading to localised waterlogging. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a marginal reduction in rain intensity from Friday, with very light to light rainfall expected till Sunday.

A car stuck on a waterloggged strech in Gurugram. (Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

“We can expect rains to continue in the city. Light rain will likely continue in most places with overcast skies,” said an IMD official.

Delhi woke up to overnight showers, with most places having logged moderate rainfall. IMD data showed Safdarjung, Delhi’s base station for weather, logged 39.1mm in the 24 hours till 8.30am on Thursday. In the same period, Palam recorded 34.6mm, Lodhi road 32.6mm, Ridge 21mm, Ayanagar 16.3mm, Pragati Maidan 23.1mm, Najafgarh 25.5mm, Pusa 41mm and Janakpuri 17.5mm.

Widespread rain continued through the day too, with overcast skies persisting. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm, Safdarjung logged another 16.6mm, Ridge 34.4mm, Lodhi road 9.3mm, Rajghat 9.8mm and Pusa 9mm. More rain was witnessed in southwest Delhi as Palam recorded 79mm, Ayanagar 51.1mm and Najafgarh 61mm.

The rain also impacted operations at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, with at least four flights diverted due to bad weather, officials said. Several flights were also delayed.

IMD classifies rainfall as ‘light’ when it is up to 15.5mm; as ‘moderate’ when it is between 15.6 to 64.4mm and as ‘heavy’ when it is over 64.4mm in a 24-hour window.

July ended with 259.3mm of rain – making it a 24% excess over the monthly normal of 209.7mm. This follows excess rain in both May and June. May 2025 was the wettest on record, with 186.4mm of rain—far above the normal average of 30.7mm. In June, Delhi recorded 107.1mm of monthly rainfall – an excess of 45% over the long-period average of 74.1mm, data showed.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet, said consistent rains are expected in Delhi-NCR for at least a week. “There is a cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, which may merge. The monsoon trough should also remain close to Delhi. We can expect widespread rains in the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain belt for the next seven days. In Delhi, it will mainly be consistent light rain with intense showers at some places. The weather will remain pleasant,” he said.

The maximum temperature stood at 29.9°C on Thursday – five degrees below normal. The minimum was 24.7°C, which was two degrees below normal. The maximum is forecast to be between 33-35°C on Friday, while the minimum will remain close to 24°C.

The consistent rain has also helped to maintain the air quality. The average air quality index (AQI) stood at 59 (satisfactory) at 4 pmon Thursday. It was 66 (satisfactory) at the same time a day earlier.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Thursday said July ended with an average AQI of 78, which is the lowest since 2018. The average AQI for the month of July was 96 last year, 84 in 2023, 87 in 2022, 110 in 2021, 84 in 2020, 134 in 2019, and 104 in 2018.