‘It was like February’

In a matter of minutes, a blistering hot day morphed into a cool, breezy afternoon as a sudden spell of rain drenched Delhi and helped it quell the summer heat on Friday.

In a matter of minutes, a blistering hot day morphed into a cool, breezy afternoon as a sudden spell of rain drenched Delhi and helped it quell the summer heat on Friday.

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The rainfall, which arrived without warnings — like an overcast sky — followed what had looked like yet another scorcher of a day set to break some records.

Starting with a muggy 30 degrees Celsius (three degrees above normal) at daybreak, the mercury had gone up to 42 degrees Celsius by afternoon when the rainfall occurred.

The good news is, the weekend might be similar with chances of rain and squall, the weatherman said.

Large tracts of dark clouds arrived out of nowhere around 2 p.m. and brisk winds became a minor squall.

“At 55 kmph, it was a thunder-squall caused by the breaking up of large clouds,” explained a Met official at the Safdarjung unit of the India Meteorological Department.

“With a pleasant nip in the air, it became like a day in February and not May,” said Manju Kumar (32), a housewife in Janak Puri, who got caught up in rain while fetching her daughter from a camp.

A cool day meant the ice-cream vendors did brisk business at the India Gate in the evening, where Delhiities, already in weekend mode, reveled in the good weather.