Cloudy weather, drizzle bring down Capital’s mercury

While skies remained overcast throughout Thursday, rainfall remained patchy with only a few parts of the national capital witnessing isolated spells of drizzle

While skies remained overcast throughout Thursday, rainfall remained patchy with only a few parts of the national capital witnessing isolated spells of drizzle. The cloudy weather, however, helped bring down the mercury with Delhi recording a maximum temperature of 33.1 degrees Celsius (°C), which was two degrees below the normal for this time of the year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The IMD has predicted light to moderate rain across the capital on Friday and Saturday and light rain on Sunday. (ANI Photo)

While Safdarjung, Delhi’s base weather station, failed to record any rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm Thursday, Mayur Vihar, Jafarpur, Najafgarh and Pusa weather stations recorded a bit of rain. The IMD said the monsoon trough is likely to stay over north-west India for the next three days, and so rain will continue in the region until Sunday.

The IMD has predicted light to moderate rain across the capital on Friday and Saturday and light rain on Sunday. “Rains will continue over Delhi-NCR for the next three days. Intensity will generally be between light to moderate; heavy rain is only expected if the monsoon trough shifts closer to Delhi. At present, it is north of Delhi and will stay there for the next few days,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD, adding that the intensity of rain will vary over north-west India during this period.

While the Mayur Vihar station recorded 3.5mm of rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm Wednesday, 1mm was recorded at Jafarpur, 0.5mm at Pusa and 2.5mm at Najafgarh.

Safdarjung station recorded 56.6mm of rainfall in the 24-hour period between 8.30am on Wednesday and 8.30am on Thursday. Palam recorded 94.6mm of rain during this period.

With this, Safdarjung has now received 221.7mm of rainfall so far this July, surpassing the monthly average of 210.6mm. Last July, Delhi had recorded 507.1mm of rain -- around 2.5 times the average for the month.

In terms of minimum temperature, Delhi had a low of 24.5°C, three notches below the normal for this time of the season. Delhi’s relative humidity oscillated between 68-98% on Thursday.

Delhi’s air quality also saw a marked improvement in the last 24 hours, with an air quality index (AQI) reading of 70 (satisfactory), said the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily 4pm bulletin. It was 98 (satisfactory) at the same time on Wednesday. Agencies have forecast the AQI to remain in the ”satisfactory” category over the next three days and may even improve to the ”good” category.An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good“, 51 and 100 “satisfactory“, 101 and 200 “moderate“, 201 and 300 “poor“, 301 and 400 “very poor“, and 401 and 500 “severe“.

“The AQI is in the lower end of the ”satisfactory” category. Dust (size > 2.5 micrometer) at present is contributing to around 56% to PM10 and for the next three days (22nd, 23rd, 24th) peak wind speed is likely to be around 15-24 km/h causing moderate dispersion. AQI is likely to be within the ”satisfactory” or the upper end of the ”good” category due to expected rain spells,” said Safar, an air quality forecasting body of the Union government.