Rain, thunderstorms, hail likely Thursday, Friday

The city is likely to experience heavy rain, accompanied by squall, high wind speeds and possibly a hailstorm as well, on Thursday and Friday, as per the predictions

The city is likely to experience heavy rain, accompanied by squall, high wind speeds and possibly a hailstorm as well, on Thursday and Friday, as per the predictions by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Although rain had also been predicted for Wednesday, the city saw mainly overcast skies with only a light drizzle in the evening.

Kuldeep Shrivastava, spokesperson, IMD, said on Wednesday, “We are expecting extremely strong winds, heavy showers and also hailstorms. It is likelier to happen on Friday, although wind speed and some showers are very likely on Thursday as well.” Wind speeds are supposed to touch as much as 30kmph on Thursday, rising to as much as 50 to 60kmph on Friday, he added. This is due to the passage of another Western Disturbance, which made its presence felt in some parts of Haryana on Wednesday, such as Rohtak, where rainfall and hailstorms were observed on Wednesday.

Air quality, meanwhile, remained ‘moderate’, with 152 on the CPCB’s air quality index (AQI) bulletin.

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As per the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, “Air quality is likely to improve and reach in lower end of moderate category on 05.03.2020 owing to strong surface winds and rain. The air quality is likely to improve and reach in lower end of moderate to satisfactory category on 06.03.2020 owing to strong surface winds and rain.”

“The predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from southeast direction of Delhi having wind speed upto 25 kmph on 05.03.2020 with partly cloudy sky, strong surface winds(speed 25-30 kmph) and light rain/thundershowers. The predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from east direction of Delhi having wind speed up to 25kmph on 06.03.2020 with generally cloudy sky, light to moderate rain/thundershowers accompanied with squall (speed 40-50kmph) and hailstorm at isolated places,” the early air quality warning system stated on Wednesday.

As per a CPCB forecast, air quality in Gurugram is set to improve considerably over the next three days, to settle in the ‘satisfactory’ category of the AQI on Saturday, with a predicted value of 54.