Rain keeps Delhi cool as air quality improves

Delhi is expected to see similar weather on Friday too, with the first half of the day being sunny and the second half seeing gusty winds and light rain

Rain and gusty winds lashed the Capital on Wednesday night, with India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributing the weather to a western disturbance affecting northwest India. The inclement weather — winds speeds reached 58kmph — led to a Vistara flight from Mumbai to Delhi being diverted to the Jaipur airport.

At Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Thursday. The IMD has forecast on-and-off rain to continue in the Capital till May 29, with the month to end on a relatively cool note. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Thursday began on a relatively warm note, though the mercury was below normal for a second day in a row, with the maximum temperature settling at 36.9 degrees Celsius (°C) — three degrees below normal for this time of the year. By evening, however, the skies turned grey, with strong winds battering the city, followed by rain.

While no rainfall was recorded at any Delhi weather station till 8:30 pm, Met officials said most parts of Delhi were covered by a large thunder cell after that, with strong but intense showers lasting 15 to 20 minutes at most locations. “These thunder clouds covered the entire Delhi and brought rain across NCR too. The duration was short, but it was fairly intense. While light rainfall is likely to be recorded in Delhi, moderate rainfall may also have been received in some places in NCR,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD, stating the top wind speed reported at Palam was 58 km/hr, at around 8:30 pm, while it was 22 km/hr at Safdarjung.

“The situation became normal once again, after 9:30 pm.” an airport official said.

Delhi has already recorded 60.4mm of rainfall so far in May – around double of the normal monthly mark of 30.7mm. In May 2022, Delhi received 47.7mm of rainfall, while in 2021, it received 144.8mm of rainfall. The all-time rainfall record for May is 165mm in 2008.

Delhi is expected to see similar weather on Friday too, with the first half of the day being sunny and the second half seeing gusty winds and light rain. “The impact of this western disturbance is expected to continue in the region, with light showers expected towards Friday evening and night too. Over the weekend, we could see drizzle to very light rain in some places,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD.

Delhi also recorded a dip in minimum temperature, with the Safdarjung observatory logging a minimum of 22.6°C — four degrees below normal. This was lower than the 25.4°C on Wednesday, and the 29.8°C on Tuesday. Forecasts show the maximum is likely to hover between 35 and 38 degrees till the end of the month, while the minimum will be between 21 and 23 degrees.

The IMD has forecast on-and-off rain to continue in the Capital till May 29, with the month to end on a relatively cool note. The mercury is also forecast to remain below 40°C till the end of the month, officials said.

Thursday’s rain, accompanied by strong winds, also helped improve pollution levels in the city, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) dropping to the lower end of the “moderate” zone. The city’s average AQI stood at 106 (moderate), as per Central Pollution Control Board’s national bulletin at 4 pm. It was 158 (moderate) a day earlier at the same time.

The AQI is likely to remain in the moderate range till May 28 now, forecasts show.

The CPCB classifies an AQI between 0-50 as good, between 51 and 100 as satisfactory, between 101 and 200 as moderate, between 201 and 300 as poor, between 301 and 400 as very poor and over 400 as severe.