Heavy rains, coupled with thunderstorm, lashed several parts of the national capital on December 12 evening, which is expected to improve the city’s air quality and bring the temperature further down.
Under the influence of a western disturbance, the national capital recorded rains with strong winds for nearly two hours, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the regional weather forecasting head of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to the Safdarjung observatory, reading of which is considered official for the city, 1.9 mm of rainfall was recorded till 8.30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Met department said Delhi recorded a low of 12.8 degrees Celsius and a high of 21.5 degrees Celsius on December 12.
The weatherman said the temperature is likely to drop after December 14.
The Met department has also forecast thunderstorm with hail on December 13. The minimum and maximum temperature are expected to be around 13 degrees Celsius and 19 degrees Celsius.
Following heavy rains and thunderstorm, the city’s air quality is expected to improve on December 13.
At 4 p.m. on December 12, the air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 429.
Delhi’s suburbs, Ghaziabad (467), Noida (434), Greater Noida (423), Faridabad (410) and Gurgaon (395), also breathed extremely polluted air on December 12.
An AQI between 301-400 is considered ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’ An AQI above 500 falls in the ‘severe plus’ category.
