NEW DELHI: Light rains continued to lash several parts of the national capital on Sunday, keeping the mercury as well as the air quality in check. Showers gave the city another ‘satisfactory’ air quality day. Rain relief is likely to end soon with the weather department predicting only patchy rain over the next three days, which may bring high humidity conditions back, said officials.
On Sunday, Safdarjung received 0.9 mm of rain till 5.30 pm. This is in addition to the 12.9 mm rain it received over the past 24 hours. Other weather stations also received light showers. The Ridge got 3.1 mm of rain, Lodhi Road received 2.5 mm, east Delhi’s Sports Complex received 2 mm and Palam received only ‘traces’ during the day, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to IMD officials, with continuous light showers in the city, mercury has remained lower than average. On Sunday, the maximum temperature was 33 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal for this time of the year, while the minimum settled at 24.6 degrees C, three notches below the season’s average.
“Rainfall activity will reduce over the next three days with the monsoon trough likely to move further away to northern plains from Delhi-NCR. Intermittent showers or drizzle are likely but strong spells are not expected until August 4-5. The trough is likely to keep moving over the northern parts of the country and may return close to Delhi-NCR by this time,” said a senior IMD official.
After a strong start to monsoon when Delhi had recorded 117.2 mm of rain over a 24-hour period till July 1, rainfall activity had reduced resulting in soaring temperatures and extremely high humidity levels.