Delhi: Showers this week may stave off mercury spike

Delhi has received 117.9mm of rain so far this year. It received 88.2mm of rainfall in January – the highest in the last 121 years; and 29.7mm of rainfall, the highest in the last eight years, in February.

The Capital’s trend of recording excess rainfall may continue in March too as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted two back-to-back western disturbances will reach Delhi, first between March 8 and 10, and another around March 13. While Met officials have predicted a 25-50% chance of rain during the first western disturbance -- noting that they will have to assess its influence over the next 48 hours to be certain -- they said the two back-to-back western disturbances are likely to lead to cloudy conditions again, maintaining the maximum temperature between 28°C and 30°C.

Delhi saw cloudy skies on Sunday, keeping the maximum temperature in check as Safdarjung recorded a high of 28.2°C – one degree below normal. (PTI file photo)

“So far, there is a chance of drizzle activity and rain occurring over Delhi, but like the last spell, it is possible the western disturbance fails to reach Delhi. We have forecast that it is not likely to touch Uttar Pradesh. Even without rain though, Delhi will see cloudy skies and surface winds touching 35km/hr, which will again bring down the maximum temperature,” said R.K Jenamani, scientist at IMD.

Delhi has received 117.9mm of rain so far this year. It received 88.2mm of rainfall in January – the highest in the last 121 years; and 29.7mm of rainfall, the highest in the last eight years, in February. The normal mark for average rain in March is 15.9mm.

Delhi saw cloudy skies on Sunday, keeping the maximum temperature in check as Safdarjung recorded a high of 28.2°C – one degree below normal.

The warmest location in the Capital on Sunday was the Ridge station, where the maximum temperature touched 28.5°C.

So far, the warmest day this year has been March 3, when the maximum temperature touched 29.4°C at Safdarjung and 30.6°C at Pitampura. In comparison, Delhi recorded a maximum of 27.2°C on Saturday and 25.5°C on Friday.

In terms of minimum temperature, Delhi recorded a high of 13.8°C on Sunday – a degree above normal. The forecast for Monday showed that partly cloudy skies are expected over Delhi, with the maximum and minimum hovering around 29°C and 14°C respectively.

Meanwhile, the air quality deteriorated on Sunday as the overall air quality index (AQI) dropped to 162 from 115 a day ago, both in the “moderate” range.

“The AQI is in the upper end of the ‘moderate’ air quality and it is likely to be between ‘moderate’ or the lower end of the ‘poor’ category in the next three days (March 7 to 9) as winds and mixing layer height are moderate, resulting in moderate ventilation of near-surface pollutants,” said Centre-run Safar, an air quality forecasting government body.

It added that coarse particles of a size greater than 2.5 microns were the dominant pollutant at the moment, largely owing to dry conditions.

Meanwhile, isolated light rainfall with thunderstorm or lightning is very likely over Punjab and Haryana on March 9 and 10. Under the influence of a trough in easterlies, isolated, light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorm or lightning is very likely over Maharashtra, Gujarat, East Rajasthan and West Madhya Pradesh during March 7 and 10, IMD said in its Sunday bulletin.

The impact on the western Himalayan region (Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-BaltistanMuzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand); Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi; West Uttar Pradesh, east Uttar Pradesh, west Rajasthan and East Rajasthan will be highest on March 8 and 9, said IMD. However, on the rest of days, only light rain is expected in parts of the northwestern plains.

The depression over southwest Bay of Bengal moved nearly southwestwards and weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area over the same region on Sunday. It is very likely to move further southwestwards towards north Tamil Nadu coast and weaken gradually into a low-pressure area during next 24 hours.