Delhi weather: Overnight light rain in parts of capital, AQI improves

Delhi weather: The national capital saw a slight increase in the minimum temperature on Saturday, even as isolated parts of the city received light rain overnight.

The India Meteorological department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for rain, thunderstorms and possible gusty winds of speed 30-40 kmph for the day.

The weather station at Safdarjung, the city’s primary station, did not receive any rain, other weather stations like Palam received 1.9 mm of rain between 11.30 pm on Friday and 2.30 am.

Lodhi Road received 0.3 mm of rain around the same time, Ridge recorded 1.9 mm, Ayanagar recorded 5.8 mm, and Pitampura received 0.5mm in the same time period.

No further rain was recorded after that, till 8.30 am, as per data from IMD.

The minimum temperature increased to 20.7 degrees Celsius, 1.9 degree above the normal and a 1.5 degree increase from a day before.

IMD officials explained that this was due to the presence of a cloud cover, as a result of which the heat escapes slowly from the earth’s surface at night.

The air quality of Delhi saw a marked improvement due to the fresh showers. The air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 177 (moderate) at 9 am on Saturday, as compared to the 24-hour average AQI of 266 (poor) recorded on Friday, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)

As per CPCB standards, an AQI of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’.

The Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) for Delhi has forecast the AQI to remain in the moderate category for the next few days.

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