Delhi to see partly cloudy skies, thunder and lightning today

Rainfall and strong winds on Wednesday had brought the temperature down, and the minimum temperature recorded early on Thursday was 22.4 degrees Celsius, two degrees below the normal for this time of the year.

The Safdarjung weather observatory, which provides a marker for the city, recorded very light rainfall of around 1.4 mm on Wednesday evening. The highest amount of rainfall recorded in the city over the past 24 hours was at the weather observatory in North Delhi’s Ridge which recorded 8.8 mm, followed by 7 mm at Aya Nagar.

After the recent relief brought to Northwest India by a western disturbance, the maximum temperature over the region is likely to rise by three to four degrees during the next three days, according to an IMD forecast issued on Thursday. The maximum temperature in Delhi is set to return to 40 degrees Celsius on May 6. Heatwave conditions are on the forecast once again for the national capital on May 10 and 11, when the maximum temperature is likely to be around 43 or 44 degrees Celsius.

The maximum temperature over parts of Central India is also likely to rise by two to three degrees during the next five days.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi on Wednesday was 269, in the ‘poor’ category. It could improve on Thursday and Friday but remain within the ‘poor’ category, according to a forecast issued by the Air Quality Early Warning System. With the rainfall, the concentration of particulate matter at most monitoring stations had fallen on Wednesday night.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the PM2.5 concentration hit a low of 24 µg/m3 at around 2 am, going by data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. This is well within the 24-hour standard of 60 µg/m3. The level at 9 am on Thursday increased to 84 µg/m3. PM10 levels at the monitoring station also reached a low of 56 µg/m3 at 9 pm on Wednesday, within the 24-hour standard of 100 µg/m3.