Rains bring down mercury and push up pollution level in Delhi, light shower expected today

Despite rains, the pollution levels in the national capital increased slightly as the overall air quality index stood at 281 at 4 pm, up from 218 on Wednesday.
A group of girls try to keep dry from the rains. (PHOTO | ARUN KUMAR)
A group of girls try to keep dry from the rains. (PHOTO | ARUN KUMAR)

NEW DELHI: The national Capital received rainfall on Thursday morning at several places bringing down the temperature to 16.4 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature, however, increased to 9.5 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal, due to cloud cover, the meteorological department said “The rain would stop during the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

While the minimum temperature will fall by two degrees, the maximum temperature will rise by one degree Celsius,” senior scientist of the IMD, Dr Kuldeep Srivastava told this newspaper. However, there would be dip in minimum temperature by two notches. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, recorded 4 mm of rainfall. The weather stations at Lodi Road, Ridge, Ayanagar and Palam recorded 6.4 mm, 2.8 mm, 1.7 mm and 0.8 mm of rains respectively.

Despite rains, the pollution levels in the national capital increased slightly as the overall air quality index stood at 281 at 4 pm, up from 218 on Wednesday.

“The overall Delhi AQI is in the poor category on 16 December. Under the influence of current Western disturbance increased wind speed and scattered to fairly widespread precipitation are expecting in the Delhi region on today and tomorrow,” SAFAR stated. Moderate to dense fog is expected in the national capital on Friday while the maximum and minimum temperatures will hover around 17 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius respectively, the weather office said.

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The New Indian Express
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