Mercury goes up; thunderstorms, winds ahead in Delhi: IMD

Delhi's temperature rose to 28.4°C amid a yellow alert for thunderstorms and gusty winds. Moderate air quality expected in the coming days.

The Capital’s temperature saw a further rise on Saturday, amidst a yellow alert issued by the India Meteorological department (IMD), warning people of a possible thunderstorm and gusty winds. Similar weather conditions have been forecast for Sunday, even though no alert has been issued yet.

At the Red Fort in Delhi on Saturday. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

Delhi’s minimum temperature on Saturday was recorded at 28.4 °C as compared to 26.4°C recorded on Friday. The minimum on Saturday was 1.7°C above the normal. Friday’s minimum had been a sharp rise from 20.8°C recorded on Thursday.

The maximum, too, saw a slight rise and was recorded at 38.2°C, 2°C below the normal. The maximum was 37.1°C a day before.

“Gusty winds of speed 40-60 kmph, temporarily even reaching 70 kmph is expected to influence the region towards the night on Saturday. This might be accompanied by very light to light rain, thunderstorm, lightning and dust raising winds,” said an IMD official.

IMD has also forecast light rain along with thunderstorm and gusty winds of speed 30-40 kmph, occasionally rising to 50 kmph on Sunday.

The IMD official added, “Partly cloudy skies are expected to continue on Monday and Tuesday as well. The Capital might thunderstorms and gusty winds for the rest of the following week as well.”

Meanwhile, the air quality continued to stay in the moderate category. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 141 (moderate) at 4pm, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily national bulletin. The AQI was 129 (moderate) at the same time on Friday and 119 (moderate) on Thursday.

The CPCB classifies AQI between 0 and 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”.

Forecasts by the Centre’s Early Warning System for Delhi (EWS) show that air quality is likely to be in ’moderate’ category for the next few days.

“The air quality is likely to be in moderate category from Sunday to Tuesday. The outlook for subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in the moderate category,” said the EWS bulletin on Saturday evening.