India’s capital witnessed a slight increase in temperature today, even after IMD issued a yellow alert for the next two days, warning of possible rain, thunderstorms, and gusty winds in Delhi.
Safdarjung, representative of the city's weather, recorded a maximum temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees below normal and 1.4 degrees more than a day before. The minimum temperature was logged at 27.4 degrees Celsius, 0.5 degrees above normal and 0.6 degrees more than Tuesday.
Other weather stations also recorded a similar trend of a slight increase in temperature. Palam recorded a 3.7 degree rise in the maximum temperature, which was logged at 39.6 degrees Celsius; Lodhi Road recorded a maximum temperature of 38.8 degrees Celsius, 2.8 degrees more than a day before; Ridge recorded a maximum of 39.3 degrees, and Ayanagar recorded a maximum temperature of 39.6 degrees Celsius, a 2.1 degree and 3.5 degree rise from a day before, respectively.
The minimum temperature across weather stations in Delhi also recorded a slight increase. Meanwhile, the IMD issued a yellow alert for Thursday and Friday.
"Partly to generally cloudy skies are expected to persist for the next two days. A yellow alert has been issued for Thursday and Friday, as light rain is expected, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and strong winds of speed reaching 40-50 kmph, even gusting to 60 kmph," said an IMD official.
The IMD has forecast similar conditions to continue on Saturday as well, though no alert has been issued for the day yet.
Mahesh Palawat, vice-president at Skymet, said, "There is a fresh western disturbance and cyclonic circulation over central Pakistan, Haryana and northwest Rajasthan, as a result of which rain and thunderstorm activity is expected for the next three days." The IMD has forecast the maximum temperature to be around 37-39 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The minimum temperature is expected to be around 27-29 degrees for the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, Delhi's air quality remained in the moderate category on Wednesday and the 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was logged at 143 (moderate) at 4 pm on Wednesday, as compared to the average AQI of 106 (moderate) recorded at the same time on Tuesday, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
As per CPCB standards, an AQI of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’.