The capital witnessed a slight drop in minimum temperatures on Saturday, with heavy rain expected to hit the city over the next few days.
Safdarjung, the city’s primary weather station, recorded at least 24.8 degrees Celsius, 1.7 degrees below normal. The minimum temperature was 26.2 degrees Celsius the previous day.
Other stations also recorded temperatures below normal. Palam recorded a minimum of 24.6 degrees Celsius, 2.5 degrees below normal, while Ridge recorded 24.6 degrees Celsius, 2.1 degrees below normal.
“The drop in minimum occurs when the sky is clear, resulting in more heat loss from the Earth’s surface. The sky is expected to remain mostly clear until Saturday,” an IMD official said.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, there is a “possibility of thundery development towards afternoon/evening” on Sunday, along with strong winds of 20-30 kmph, and occasional gusts of 40 kmph.
The official added, “It is expected that strong surface winds will continue on Monday and Tuesday as well.”
The IMD expected the maximum temperature to range between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the city’s air quality index (AQI) remained in the ‘moderate’ category at 173 at 9 am on Saturday, compared to the 24-hour average AQI of 152, also ‘moderate’, recorded at 4 pm on Friday, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.
According to CPCB standards, an air quality index (AQI) of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.
Delhi’s Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) forecast AQI to remain ‘moderate’ over the weekend and then deteriorate to ‘vulnerable’ category on Monday.
