It’ll be a rainy week, showers to get heavier

Gurgaon: The city witnessed moderate showers on Monday, bringing down the maximum temperature by two notches, from 39.8°C on Sunday to 37°C.
Even though the rain was brief and stopped after 15-20 minutes, the cool breeze brought much-needed relief from the sweltering heat.
While the district administration said that the city recorded rainfall of 8mm, the Met observatory at Palam and Ayanagar (two stations situated close to the city, on the Delhi border) recorded 25.8mm and 19.9mm of rainfall, respectively.
The Met department informed that the intensity of rain will increase within a couple of days. “There was a forecast of light rain in Delhi-NCR, which took place on Monday. The rain will continue for the next 3-4 days and the intensity of rain will increase after Thursday,” said a Met official.
On Monday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 37 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature was recorded at 27.2ºC. With the forecast of rain for the next three-four days, the maximum temperature is likely to dip slightly further from 37 degree Celsius to 35ºC. “Rain will surely bring down the maximum temperature to 35ºC, while the minimum temperature might go down to 26 or 25ºC,” said the official.
The Met forecast for Tuesday states, “There is a forecast of generally cloudy sky, with possibility of light rain and thundershowers. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to be between 33 and 25ºC.”
Thanks to an increase in the wind speed and showers, air pollution also witnessed a slight decline in the city. The air quality index (AQI), which was 202 (poor), 193 (moderate) and 216 (poor) on Sunday, Saturday and Friday, was recorded at 194 (moderate) on Monday. According to the SAFAR forecast, AQI on Tuesday and Wednesday is likely to be between 215 (poor) and 166 (moderate).
The monsoon finally made its presence felt in rain-starved Delhi as well. After the hot and humid weather stretching several days, a spell of monsoon showers hit Delhi on Monday afternoon, with moderate rain recorded in most parts of the capital.
This was the first rain spell across the city this monsoon. Till Monday morning, Delhi had a rain deficit of a whopping 91% since June 1, making it the driest state this season. The Safdarjung station had a 73% deficit — 68% in July alone. The much-awaited wet spell began with a strong dust storm with wind speeds touching up to 60km/hour as visibility fell to around 500 metres in places. Soon, strong thundershowers hit Delhi with the light-to-moderate rain continuing till the evening in many areas. Two flights, headed to IGI Airport, were diverted to Lucknow.
The Safdarjung observatory, taken as the base for city’s weather, recorded 28.8mm of rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Monday — the highest this season. Palam and Lodhi Road recorded 25.8mm and 23.2mm, respectively.