Delhi: Expect light rain in next two days

NEW DELHI: The Met department predicted a partly cloudy sky with the possibility of light rain or thunder or dust storm on Wednesday. For a city firmly in the grip of a heatwave, even a slight dip in temperatures came as a huge relief. Delhi recorded maximum and minimum temperatures of 41.5 and 28.7 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Tuesday. Still, the mercury was one notch above the normal in both cases.

On Monday, the maximum and minimum temperatures were 40.6 and 29.4 degrees Celsius, respectively. Palam, which is usually the hottest in the city, recorded a maximum temperature of 43.4 degrees Celsius, Ayanagar 42.4 and Jafarpur 42.3. Humidity levels oscillated between 60% and 37%.

“Over the next couple of days, the sky will be partly cloudy with the possibility of light rain or thunderstorm, accompanied by lightning and gusty winds, till Friday,” a Met official said. Delhi’s air quality was ‘moderate’ on Tuesday, the index reading 169.

According to SAFAR, a body under the Union ministry, the air quality had improved significantly in the last 24 hours because of a change in the wind direction and a subsequent slip in the maximum temperature due to moist air from the Bay of Bengal.

“The air quality is predicted to remain in the moderate-to-poor category for the next 2-3 days. Moisture from the Bay of Bengal, along with a western disturbance, can lead to local dust storms and increase the level of coarser particles like PM10,” a SAFAR report stated.