NEW DELHI: A massive dust storm barrelled through the national capital on Sunday, a day after the mercury touched the 40.9 degrees Celsius mark in the city — the season's highest so far. Light rains were also reported from isolated places in Delhi-NCR, weather experts said.
Gusty winds and rains led to a significant drop in the mercury. The maximum temperature is expected to settle around 35 degrees Celsius.
Kuldeep Srivastava, Head of IMD’s North-West Meteorological Centre said, "The activity is due to western disturbance. It has resulted in dust storms, thunder and light rainfall. The wind speed is currently 60 kmph."
This weather condition will persist for one or two hours and then move towards west and east Uttar Pradesh. "Temperature will drop and will be around 35 degrees celsius."
Mahesh Palawat, Vice-President (Meteorology and Climate Change), Skymet Weather also echoed similar predictions. He said that there is a western disturbance and cyclone circulation over Punjab and Haryana, that is why it rained heavily in Punjab, north-Haryana and Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad.
However, Palawat emphasized that the weather condition will persist till May 14. "Till then, there will be short spells and some activity. Due to this condition, temperature may drop by 2-3 degrees. It will be around 38-39 degrees. Heat wave will not come before May 15," he added.
Air quality ‘moderate’
The capital’s air quality index is likely to improve after the isolated rainfall and gusty wins on Sunday. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, air quality stood in the moderate range at 104 micrograms per cubic. Skymet Weather said that the city is not likely to experience any heat wave before May 15.