Trace rainfall, gusty winds bring some respite from heat

There was some respite from the rising temperature on Tuesday with the city receiving trace rainfall with gusty winds

There was some respite from the rising temperature on Tuesday with the city receiving trace rainfall with gusty winds. India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientists said the weather is expected to remain pleasant for the next two days but the mercury will start rising again from Friday.

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Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said the city received trace rainfall and the day was largely cloudy with gusty winds.

“The wind speed was high today (Tuesday); it touched 60kmph. The temperature is expected to remain comparatively lower, around 30-31 degrees Celsius over the next two days,” said Srivastava.

He further said from Friday, the temperature is likely to rise again. The forecast says around Holi, which is on Monday, the maximum temperature is likely to touch 37-38 degrees Celsius.

On Tuesday, the maximum temperature recorded at the Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the official marker for the city, was 29.6 degrees Celsius—a notch below the season’s normal.

The minimum temperature, however, was the highest so far this season at 21.5 degrees Celsius, four degrees above what is considered normal for this time of the year.

IMD recordings show that this month, barring Tuesday’s temperature drop, the maximum temperature has been two to three degrees higher than normal. Scientists said they are expecting the recordings to be a few degrees warmer than usual.

“We are expecting this month’s mean maximum temperature recordings to be a few degrees above normal,” said Srivastava.

Despite the gusty winds during the day, the air quality on Tuesday deteriorated to the ”poor” category. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recordings show that the overall air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was 244 on Tuesday. On Monday, the AQI was 196, in the ”moderate” zone of the AQI scale.