Temperatures drop after overnight rain in Delhi, AQI improves to 'satisfactory'

New Delhi: Overnight rain and thunderstorms significantly brought down temperatures and improved air quality in the national capital.

The minimum temperature settled at 16.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday morning, marking a notable drop for the early part of April.

The city's base weather monitoring station in Safdarjung logged 6.4 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am, marking the wettest spell since April 4, 2023, when 16.3 mm of rain was recorded.

Among the other stations, Palam recorded 4.4 mm rainfall, Lodhi Road 5.6 mm and Ridge 3.6 mm. Ayanagar recorded 14.3 mm of rainfall, the highest among all stations.

Earlier, the India Meteorological Department had forecast thunderstorms with rain on Wednesday under the influence of a western disturbance, which weather experts said has brought widespread cloud cover and precipitation.

Minimum temperatures across stations registered a notable drop.

Safdarjung recorded 16.8 degrees Celsius, down by 3.3 notches; Palam registered 15.5 degrees Celsius, 4.1 notches below normal; Lodhi Road saw 16.2 degrees Celsius, 2.4 notches below normal; Ridge recorded 15.3 degrees Celsius, 1.9 notches below normal; and Ayanagar logged 16.4 degrees Celsius, 1.7 notches below normal.

Air quality saw a marked improvement, with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 82, falling in the 'satisfactory' category, at 9 am.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, an AQI of 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe".