Temperature rises under clear skies after brief drizzle | Delhi News – The Times of India

New Delhi: Clear skies and bright sunshine pushed Delhi’s daytime temperature up on Thursday, a day after scattered light showers briefly cooled the city. The maximum temperature rose to 28 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal, compared to 21.1 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, when cloud cover kept conditions relatively mild.India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the brief spell of drizzle was caused by a western disturbance that had a limited impact. “The western disturbance only brought patchy drizzle in isolated parts of the city. The maximum temperature was low on Wednesday, as it was cloudy, but with the impact of the western disturbance already over, Thursday saw sunshine again. Winds also remained around 5 km/hr, so temperature was able to rebound quickly,” said an IMD official, forecasting temperatures to remain above normal and a warmer end to Feb.Earlier this week, Delhi already witnessed summer-like readings, with the maximum touching 31.6 degrees Celsius on Monday and 30.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. This was the earliest instance of temperatures crossing the 30 degree Celsius mark in Feb in the past five years. IMD expects the upward trend to persist, with mercury likely to reach 31 degrees Celsius by Sunday.Minimum temperatures are also projected to climb. Thursday’s low was 11.4 degrees Celsius, close to the seasonal average, but night time readings could rise to around 14 degrees Celsius by the weekend.Air quality showed marginal improvement in the morning but deteriorated by evening as wind speeds remained weak. The city’s 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), on a scale of 0 to 500, was 208 at 4 pm on Thursday, slightly lower than 214 at the same time on Wednesday; both were poor.Forecasts by the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) indicate conditions may improve briefly over the weekend. “Delhi’s air quality is likely to be in the ‘poor’ category on Friday. It is likely to be in the ‘moderate’ category on Saturday, and again in ‘poor’ on Sunday,” said the EWS in its daily bulletin, forecasting the AQI to continue to oscillate between ‘poor’ and ‘moderate’ in the coming week too.