Delhi sees light rain, cooler weather, cleaner air

Generally cloudy skies will persist throughout the day on Saturday, with chances of very light to light rain in several parts of the city: IMD

New Delhi: Scattered rain brought relief to Delhi early Saturday, with temperatures dipping slightly and air quality improving to the ‘satisfactory’ category.

Scattered rain continued in parts of Delhi until the early hours of Saturday. (Representative photo)

“Generally cloudy skies will persist throughout the day on Saturday, with chances of very light to light rain in several parts of the city. This might be accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning,” said an IMD official.

Scattered rain continued in parts of Delhi until the early hours of Saturday. According to the IMD, a “trace amount” of rain was recorded at the Safdarjung and Palam weather stations between 11.30 pm on Friday and 2.30 am on Saturday; other weather stations like Ayanagar recorded 23 mm of rain, and Ridge recorded 0.4 mm during the same period.

The IMD considers up to 15.5 mm of rainfall as light rainfall, 15.6 mm to 64.4 mm as moderate, 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm as heavy, and 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm as very heavy rainfall.

Delhi’s minimum temperature dropped by a degree to 27.0°C on Saturday. The maximum temperature is also expected to decrease gradually in the coming days and hover around 30–32°C by the middle of next week, as compared to 36.9°C recorded on Friday.

Air quality improved to the “satisfactory” category by Saturday morning and was logged at 91 (satisfactory) at 9 am, compared to the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 136 (moderate) recorded at 4 pm on Friday, according to Central Pollution Control Board data.

IMD forecasts suggest similar weather conditions will continue, but no alerts have been issued for the weekend or the subsequent days.