Light rain set to alleviate chokehold of toxic air

Several parts of the city received light rain on Sunday afternoon, a day after Diwali, due to a fresh western disturbance, said weather officials. Isolated to scattered

Several parts of the city received light rain on Sunday afternoon, a day after Diwali, due to a fresh western disturbance, said weather officials. Isolated to scattered rainfall is likely to bring some relief to residents from a spike in air pollution post-Diwali.

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Air quality in the city deteriorated to the ‘severe’ category on Sunday, with a reading of 425 on the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index (AQI) bulletin, a day after Diwali. This is significantly up from Saturday’s AQI reading of 358, which indicated ‘very poor’ air.

Earlier during the day, high-speed winds of 12-14kmph prevailed, due to which accumulation of pollutants was curtailed to some extent. As per the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research’s (Safar) official forecast, Sunday’s rainfall may help in the improvement of air quality.

“An isolated scattered rainfall under the influence of fresh Western Disturbance by November 15 is also expected. The AQI is likely to start improving from the afternoon and make AQI in the lower end of ‘very poor’ on November 16,” stated Safar’s official forecast on Sunday.

Gurugram’s minimum temperature settled at 15 degrees Celsius on Sunday, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Palam observatory in Delhi, which, according to the MeT department officials, gives a fairly accurate reading of the city’s weather. The IMD’s automatic weather station (AWS) did not record the city’s minimum temperature on Thursday. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 27.4 degrees Celsius, as per the Palam observatory.

Navdeep Dahiya, a Rohtak-based meteorologist, said that due to the build-up of meteorological activity on account of the western disturbance, the city could receive scattered rainfall till Monday morning. “Gurugram can expect light to moderate rain between Sunday night and Monday morning on account of the western disturbance. By Monday afternoon, the skies should clear up,” said Dahiya.

He said that both the minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to fall by several degrees in the coming days. “North-westerly winds from the snow-clad mountains will bring down the temperatures in the coming days. Gurugram can see a minimum temperature of around 8 degrees Celsius between 17-19 November while the maximum temperature might hover around 23 to 25 degrees Celsius,” said Dahiya.

As per the IMD’s weekly forecast, both the minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to drop by two degrees Celsius on Monday. While the maximum temperature will stay around 25 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the minimum temperature will hover around 13 degrees Celsius, as per IMD. As per the weekly forecast, fog and mist will prevail in the morning hours, followed by partly cloudy skies during the day.