The national capital on Friday recorded a minimum temperature of 13.5 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal, and is likely to witness light rain, hail and thunderstorm during the day, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The maximum temperature is expected to settle at 19 degrees Celsius. Isolated thunderstorms and hail are predicted over Delhi on Friday and Saturday, the IMD said. Moderate rain is likely in the capital on Saturday, it said.
The Safdarjung Observatory, considered the official marker for the city, had recorded 7.3 mm of rainfall on Wednesday under the influence of a western disturbance.
A fresh western disturbance will lead to light to moderate rainfall over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh from January 7 to January 9, the IMD said in a statement.
Isolated heavy rainfall is also likely over Punjab, Haryana and northwest Uttar Pradesh over the next two days, it said.
Meanwhile, the air quality in the national capital improved to ‘poor’ from ‘very poor’ category on Friday, a day after the national capital experienced intermittent rain spells, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 273, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).
“On January 8, it is likely to rain with high wind speeds leading to improvement in AQI due to wet deposition and strong dispersion resulting AQI to be in ‘lower end of poor’ or ‘moderate’ category,” SAFAR said.
From January 9 onwards, the air quality is likely to worsen due to gradual decrease in maximum and minimum temperatures as well as wind speed, all contributing to low dispersion of pollutants.
Additionally, the air quality of Noida remains in the ‘very poor’ category with the AQI at 305, the air quality of Gurugram is also in the ‘very poor’ category with the AQI at 306.
As per the government agencies, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.