Delhi wakes up to light rain, temperature drops as wind returns
The India Meteorological Department in its weather update earlier had predicted light to moderate intensity rain accompanied with thunderstorms in the national capital and its adjoining areas.
National capital Delhi witnessed light rain on Thursday morning, which pushed down the temperature. Several areas in the national capital region (NCR), like Noida, also received morning showers accompanied with gusty winds.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Delhi today, forecasting that most parts of the national capital will receive light to moderate showers, accompanied with gusty winds.
“Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain and wind speed of 20-30 kmph would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of entire Delhi and NCR (Hindon, Loni Dehat, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Gurugram),” the IMD said in its forecast for two hours at 7am on Thursday.
The IMD said that the minimum temperature in Delhi dropped to 11 degrees Celsius, owing to the rain. The minimum temperature stood at 13 degrees Celsius yesterday.
The weather department has also predicted light or moderate rainfall in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh on February 3 and 4 with its peak intensity on February 3.
Meanwhile, the air quality today remained in the "very poor" category as the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 318, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).
The IMD classifies rainfall between 2.5 and 15.5mm as 'light', between 15.6 and 64.4mm as 'moderate' and over 64.5mm in a single day as 'heavy' rainfall. It issued the yellow alert in order to warn the general public of a weather event occurring on the day.
On Wednesday, Delhi's maximum temperature was recorded at 23.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
The higher reaches of north India, including Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, are also expected to receive widespread rain due to western disturbance, the IMD said in its extended forecast. A yellow alert for heavy snowfall is already in place in Himachal Pradesh.
The active western disturbance as a trough is affecting the Western Himalayan region.