Rains likely to bring relief to choking Delhiites this week

NEW DELHI: The odd-even vehicle rationing scheme may have been called off, but the city could see pollution levels drop next week for an entirely different reason.

The Meteorological Department (MeT) has said there is a chance of light rain over Delhi-NCR on November 14 and 15, on the back of a weather disturbance hitting north India.

Rain is a natural pollution-buster, washing away toxic particles in the air, although it usually brings in its wake during this time of the year.

MeT officials said the most showers will be concentrated in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, north western Rajasthan and north Haryana, due to a western disturbance affecting the region from November 12 to November 16.

Delhi could get rain on the margins of this activity.

"There will be a western disturbance on the night of November 12, which will result in rain in Jammu and Kashmir the following day, caused due to an induced cyclonic circulation forming over north Rajasthan and parts of Pakistan, which will bring moisture into the region.

"For Delhi, light rain has been forecast for the evening of November 14 as well as some rain on November 15," said Kuldeep Srivastava of the regional MeT department.

The forecast shows scattered to fairly widespread rain activity occurring over Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on November 14 and 15, while there will be isolated rainfall activity over northwest Uttar Pradesh on November 15. Isolated rainfall is also expected across Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Srivastava added that rain is likely to help settling of particulate matter Delhi in, as well as reduction in the amount of pollution coming in from Punjab and Haryana.

Following the activity, fog could return to the region on November 16 and 17. "But this is expected to be clean fog formed due to incursion of moisture," he said.

Delhi's minimum temperature fell to 13 degrees celsius on Friday, one degree below normal, while the maximum was recorded at 29 degrees celsius.

Humidity over the last 24 hours oscillated between 33 to 96 per cent and Saturday's forecast shows shallow fog to continue in the morning.