NEW DELHI: It was a chilly and damp Saturday after the capital received the first showers for the season early morning. While the maximum temperature fell by 8 degrees, the light rain also managed to wash away particulate matter to an extent and bring down PM2.5 levels to "poor" from "very poor" on Friday. The air quality index (AQI) fell to 282, lowest since December.
The maximum temperature on Saturday after the rain was 16 degrees, about 3 degrees below normal, but minimum temperature continued to remain high at 13.5 degrees, 6 degrees above normal.
According to Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, Delhi received rain after three months. The last rain was recorded on October 5, when Safdarjung received 2mm and Palam 4.1mm rainfall.
On Saturday, there was rainfall of 3.4mm at Safdarjung, 1.7mm at Palam, 3.2mm at Lodhi road, 2.8mm at Ridge, 1.8mm at Ayanagar and 1mm at Gurgaon. "It helped in bringing down the PM concentrations. Pollution levels may remain comparatively low in the next couple of days," a Met official said.
Meteorologists explained that a cyclonic circulation is moving eastwards across northern India. There is also an associated upper air cyclonic circulation over northwest Rajasthan and nearby areas. Under their combined influence, it rained over the plains and snowed over the hills.
Once the western disturbance moves away, dense fog is likely to form at several places in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh on December 8 and 9. "The western disturbance is likely to move away in the next 24 hours. No significant change is likley in the minimum temperature over the plains of northwest India. But there may be a gradual fall of 3 to 4 degrees in the next three days because of change in wind pattern. The maximum temperatures may fall by 2 to 3 degrees," the official added.
