In rainy chaos in Delhi-NCR, clean air a feel-good story

NEW DELHI: Delhi-NCR continued to receive rainfall on Sunday with a slightly less intensity. While it brought a nip in the air, it also gave the city its rare second “good-air” day of the year.
The last time a “good-air” day was recorded was on September 16 when the air quality index (AQI) was 47. Last year, the only time air quality turned good was in October due to rain. The AQI on Sunday was 48. Gurgaon had an AQI of 32, Ghaziabad 14, Faridabad 36 and Greater Noida 23 due to the prolonged rain.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city’s base weather station, Safdarjung, recorded 74.3mm of rainfall between Saturday and Sunday (till 8.30am). On Sunday, till 8.30pm, 82.9mm of rainfall was recorded, which was over five times the month’s normal. This was also the second highest precipitation for October since 2007.
Between 8.30am and 8.30pm on Sunday, Safdarjung recorded 8.6mm of rainfall and Palam 3mm.
However, this was not monsoon rain, but a large-scale meteorological activity with earlier roots in coastal Andhra Pradesh and now in Arabian Sea. According to weather scientists, the intensity of rain would drop on Monday and further plummet on Tuesday. Weather analysts said the interaction of a western disturbance with a deep trough of easterly wind at a lower level was one of the reasons for the post-monsoon rain in the region.
“Sunday recorded only light rainfall. On Monday, the intensity is likely to drop to light to very-light with a possibility of less than 7mm of rainfall. The current situation is due to a cloud system stretching all the way from Gujarat to Haryana. The effect of low pressure will reduce on Monday along with the intensity of rain,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist, IMD.
The maximum temperature remained 10 degrees below normal on Sunday too. According to IMD, the maximum temperature was recorded at 24.1 degrees Celsius against 23.4 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The minimum temperature was 19.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, against 20.8 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
The weather department expects the maximum temperature to increase slightly and hover around 26 degrees on Monday. There are chances of rainfall of lower intensity on Tuesday, while by Wednesday the skies would be partly cloudy.