NEW DELHI: There was a nip in the air on Friday morning with several areas in the city having light to moderate rainfall. The overcast skies and intermittent drizzles throughout the day brought down the maximum temperature by nearly four degrees. Weathermen said that a “large-scale meteorological activity” across a wide swathe of the country had caused the light precipitation. According to weather analysts, there are chances that some areas in Delhi and neighbouring states will experience a short spell of high-intensity rain over the weekend. A low-pressure trough line is running from the cyclonic circulation over coastal Andhra Pradesh to Uttarakhand across Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and West Uttar Pradesh, impacting the weather in north-west India, including Delhi. “There are chances of good rain till Tuesday, October 11, with a high possibility of intense spell over Delhi on Saturday and Sunday. There is a likelihood of heavy rain in western UP and Uttarakhand and areas neighbouring Delhi will get moderate showers for the next couple of days,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-chairperson, meteorology and climate change, Skymet. At the city’s base weather station at Safdarjung, the India Meteorology Department recorded a rainfall of 0.2mm. The precipitation in different areas of Delhi ranged from 0.2 mm to a maximum of 1mm in Mayur Vihar between 8.30 am and 5.30pm on Friday. The maximum temperature in Delhi on Friday dropped by four degree Celsius from Thursday’s 31 degrees Celsius. The night-time temperature remained relatively unchanged at 21.8 degrees Celsius against a season average of 22.4 degrees. The cool and moist easterly winds turned the weather pleasantly cool. The maximum temperature is forecast to fall further over the weekend, with the maximum and minimum temperature on Saturday hovering around 25 and 21 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the air quality of the city improved to ‘satisfactory’ levels with the AQI, on a scale of 0 to 500, declining on Friday to 55 from 79 on Thursday. With more showers in store for the city over the next 3-4 days, the met department has issued a yellow alert for the city, predicting heavy rainfall on Saturday and Sunday. Though the monsoon officially withdrew from the entire region on October 3, the cyclonic circulation over Andhra Pradesh and its neighbourhood and the moisture-laden easterlies interacting with the western disturbance is bringing rain to the region, an IMD official said. There is rain forecast for the National Capital Region too. Manmohan Singh, director, IMD Chandigarh, said, “The rainfall activity is likely to increase over Haryana on October 8-10 with light to moderate rainfall likely over many places. Heavy rain in isolated places over eastern and southern regions, including Gurgaon, is likely on Saturday and Sunday. The rain spell is also likely to be accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning.” Singh said that this was the transition period from the monsoons to winter, the daytime temperature was not expected to rise much, but cloudy skies and rains would still keep the daytime temperature between 25 and 27 degrees Celsius for the next few days, after which there may be a slight rise. The data from the district administrations showed Sohna received 24mm rainfall on Friday, 5mm at Badshahpur and 1mm at Farukhnagar. Gurgaon and some other areas only had some drizzling during the day.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-brace-for-rainy-weekend-mercury-to-start-dipping/articleshow/94713692.cms