New Delhi: Delhi was drenched by moderate rain on Friday, thanks to an active monsoon. Though it caused traffic snarls and waterlogging in some areas, the mercury plummeted over the past 24 hours. The weather remained pleasant and less humid compared with the past few days.The weather department expects active monsoon conditions to continue for the next five days. Only light to very light rain has been predicted for Saturday.On Friday, the base station, Safdarjung, recorded 63.4 mm of rainfall between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm, marginally below heavy rain (64.5 mm or more). This, however, took the net monthly Aug rainfall to 399.8 mm, making it the wettest Aug since 2010 (455.1 mm). Palam recorded 5 mm of rainfall, Lodhi Road 36.6 mm, Ayanagar 11.8 mm, Ridge 1 mm and Mayur Vihar recorded 15.5 mm of rainfall. No warning or alert was issued a day earlier.According to weather scientists at India Meteorological Department, additional moisture feed to the region led to rain.“There are two possibilities of a low-pressure area: Either it will trap the moisture and its westward region will be dry, or sometimes, it will couple beyond and streamline the moisture. Yesterday, there was a cyclonic circulation over north Odisha due to which winds from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal were concentrated in that low-pressure area. Those winds then changed to easterly and shifted over to central MP. That brought excess moisture to the region, impacting Uttarakhand, Western UP, Delhi, Haryana, etc.,” said Krishna Mishra, a weat-her scientist.On Friday, the maximum temperature was 30.2 degrees Celsius compared with 35.4 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The minimum temperature was 26.2 degrees Celsiusas opposed to 25 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature on Saturdaymay hover between 31 and 33 degrees Celsius.The rain, meanwhile, improved the air quality in the city. The air quality index, on a scale of 0 to 500, was 98 or satisfactory as against 120 or moderate a day earlier.Meanwhile, IMD issued a yellow alert for several districts across Haryana, warning of thunderstorms, lightning, and moderate to light rainfall over the next four days.The advisory comes as parts of Gurgaon experienced light showers on Friday, with 1mm of rainfall recorded in the district.According to IMD officials, the minimum temperature in Gurgaon rose by 0.7 degrees C from the previous day, to be recoded at 27.1degrees C. Meanwhile, the maximum temperature dipped to 29.8 degrees C, 1.8 degrees C lower than Thursday’s 31.6 degrees C. The weather system currently passing through the region is expected to maintain relatively cooler conditions while increasing humidity levels, the officials added.
