Humid day ends in evening showers

New Delhi
Parts of the Capital recorded short and intense spells of rainfall on Tuesday evening, which brought relief to residents after a mostly hot and humid day. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for Wednesday, predicting light to moderate rainfall across the Capital.
IMD officials attributed the rainfall to a depression over Jharkhand and Chattisgarh moving closer to Delhi-NCR, thereby bringing moisture to the region. The depression, which is expected to weaken into a low-pressure area by Wednesday, is likely to be close to both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, officials said.
“Delhi-NCR is expected to see light to moderate rain during the day on Wednesday, with strong winds of 25-35 km/hr likely, as the depression turns into a low-pressure area and moves closer to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh,” an IMD official said, adding drizzle may occur in parts of the city on Thursday too.
Humidity oscillated between 60% and 95% throughout the day on Tuesday, marginally up from the range of 56-95% recorded a day earlier, making them both warm and sticky.
The rain is also expected to help improve Delhi’s worsening air quality, which touched the higher end of the “moderate” category on Tuesday. According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily bulletin, Delhi recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 172 on Tuesday, which was the worst in at least three months, since it recorded an AQI of 189 (also “moderate”) on June 22.
On Monday, Delhi’s AQI was 139 (“moderate”); it was 107 (“moderate”) on Sunday and 62 (“satisfactory”) on Saturday.
On the day, no weather station in Delhi recorded any rainfall in the 24 hours leading up to 8.30am on Tuesday or the next nine hours, till 5.30pm on Tuesday. However, it changed drastically in the evening, with east, southeast, north and south Delhi recording rainfall, IMD said.
Between 5.30pm and 8.30pm, the Mayur Vihar weather station recorded 26.5mm of rainfall. However, other stations did not record any rainfall.
No rain is likely between Friday and Sunday, the IMD official said, as there is no other active weather system, besides the depression, impacting Delhi-NCR.
Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet meteorology, said the deterioration in Delhi’s AQI was likely due to dust-raising winds in the region since Monday. “We did not see any rain on Sunday or Monday, thus, these gusty winds were able to raise dust and increase PM10. After Wednesday’s spell, the AQI will again reduce,” he said.
On Tuesday, Delhi’s maximum temperature was 34.8°C, which was a degree above normal and up from 34.1°C recorded a day earlier. Delhi’s minimum temperature was 24.4°C, which was a degree below normal and up from 24.2°C recorded a day earlier.