New Delhi: The city got an intense spell of showers Thursday accompanied by a cool breeze that sent the temperature below 30 degrees Celsius for the first time this month.
Safdarjung, which is the city’s base station, logged 15.9 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm. As Safdarjung received 41.6 mm of rainfall on Oct 12, the month has so far recorded 57.5 mm of rainfall. It is 3.8 times higher than entire Oct’s normal rainfall of 15.1 mm. Between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, the Ridge observatory in north Delhi got 25.2 mm rainfall, Rajghat 23.2 mm, Lodhi Road 20 mm, Mayur Vihar 13 mm, Palam 11.2, Ayanagar in south-west Delhi 7.2 mm and Pusa 6 mm of rainfall.
Because of the weather, five Delhi-bound flights were diverted. These included flights from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal that were diverted to Jaipur. One freighter flight from Macau was diverted to Noida International Airport.
Rain is unlikely between Oct 17 and 22. The maximum temperature dropped to 28.3 degrees Celsius, five degrees below normal. It was 33.3 degrees Celsius a day earlier. In Oct last year, the lowest maximum temperature was recorded at 26.4 degrees Celsius on Oct 28.
The impact of western disturbance is expected to remain till Friday,” said DR Pattanaik, an IMD scientist. “The city saw rain under the influence of a western disturbance.
The day temperature is likely to remain between 29 and 31 degrees Celsius Friday. However, it is expected to show a gradual rising trend with the mercury forecast to stay between 31 and 33 degrees Celsius during the weekend. The minimum temperature was reported at 23.3 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal. It is likely to stay between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius Friday and between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius Saturday.