Delhi’s night temperatures drop further, light rain possible in evening

The national capital saw a further drop in the temperature on Saturday as the India Meteorological department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for light rain and gusty winds.

Safdarjung, the base weather station of the city, recorded a minimum temperature of 24.6 degrees Celsius, two degree below the normal and a 0.7 degree decrease from a day before.

The minimum temperature at Safdarjung was 25.3 degrees Celsius on Friday and 28.4 degrees on Thursday. This comes after parts of the city received very light to light rain in the last two days.

Other weather stations also marked a similar drop in the minimum temperature on Saturday.

Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 21.5 degrees Celsius, a 2.6 degrees decrease from a day before; Lodhi Road recorded a minimum of 23.2 degrees Celsius, 2.4 degrees less than Friday’s minimum; Ridge and Ayanagar recorded a minimum of 22.3 degrees and 22.6 degrees Celsius respectively, 1.7 degrees and 2.8 degrees lower than Friday.

According to IMD, Ayanagar received 11.2 mm of rain in the early hours of Saturday, between 11.30 pm on Friday and 2.30 am on Saturday. No other weather station recorded any rain in the following hours.

“There is a yellow alert for the day, warning of possible very light to light rain, accompanied by thunderstorm, lightning and gusty wind of speed 40-50 kmph towards the afternoon and evening,” said an IMD official.

IMD has also issued a yellow alert for Sunday, predicting similar conditions to continue.

According to IMD forecast, the maximum might see a further drop on Saturday and is likely to be around 34-36 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) of the city improved to the satisfactory category on Saturday morning and was recorded at 82 at 9 am, as compared to the 24-hour average AQI of 123 (moderate) recorded at 4 pm 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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