New Delhi: Heavy rains in the national Capital on Sunday brought the mercury down with the maximum temperature settling at 31.5 degrees Celsius while some parts of the city witnessed waterlogging, officials said.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police informed that the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road in south Delhi was closed due to waterlogging at Pul Prahladpur underpass and asked commuters to take alternate routes.
Other places from where waterlogging was reported included Kirari, Rohtak Road, and Nangloi, civic officials said. However, no major waterlogging was reported from anywhere, they added.
According to the India Meteorological Department, Delhi's minimum temperature was 19 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's
average. The IMD has forecast an overcast sky on Monday with the maximum and minimum temperatures settling at 31 and 18 degrees Celsius respectively.
Meanwhile, Delhi's air quality index (AQI) remained in the moderate category at 135 at 9.45 pm, real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed, adding that Sunday's rains are expected to further improve the air quality here in the coming days.
In fact, just after the showers, the air quality had improved slightly with the reading at 161 around 7 pm.
The unusually high amount of rainfall this October has been part of a larger unusual monsoon pattern this year — which was the most delayed in almost two decades and
despite having fewer number of rainy days, posted record rainfall volume throughout the season.
"Delhi's AQI is in the moderate category. In the presence of local dry weather and south-westerly wind, local dust emission will enhance PM10. Additional dust input from desert areas via transport is very likely," the Ministry of Earth Sciences' forecast body SAFAR stated.
"With a change in the wind direction from south-westerly to north-westerly, AQI may change. Due to scattered rainfall, the AQI will improve slightly over the next 24 hours and then again degrade to moderate," it said.
According to the SAFAR model, stubble burning effective fire count was 735 on Sunday and its share in PM2.5 was two per cent. "Impact of fire emission will be low as wind is mainly south-westerly," it said.
According to IITM-Pune's Decision Support System, the air quality over Delhi-NCT is likely to remain in the 'moderate' to 'satisfactory' category on Monday and in the 'moderate' category on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Most parts of Punjab received rainfall today. The air quality is likely to remain largely in the 'moderate' category for five days," according to the Decision Support System.
Data from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) shows, 885 residue-burning events were recorded in the six study states on Friday with 620 in Punjab, 218 in Haryana, eight in UP, zero in Delhi, seven in Rajasthan and 32 in Madhya Pradesh.
Moreover, both the Centre for Air Quality Monitoring in the NCR and the IARI have noted that farm fires from stubble burning was considerably lower this year compared to the last — with a more than 50 per cent reduction in the fire count noted till now across the six study states in and around the Capital.