NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Sunday recorded its lowest minimum temperature in 18 years — 21 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.With cool north and north-easterly winds, heavy rain and storm in adjoining states and large parts of northern, central and eastern India, Delhi has been experiencing early winter-like mornings.However, Met expects both minimum and maximum temperatures to gradually rise over the next few days.“The minimum temperature of 21 degrees Celsius recorded at Safdarjung was the second-lowest minimum temperature recorded in the month of Sept since 2001. The lowest was 20.8 degrees Celsius, recorded on Sept 6, 2008, and the third lowest was 21.1 degrees Celsius, on Sept 19, 2024,” said Krishna Mishra, weather scientist at IMD.While Ridge recorded a minimum of 16.8 degrees Celsius, Palam saw 19.2 degrees Celsius and Ayanagar 21.2 degrees Celsius. On Saturday, the minimum temperature was 23.2 degrees Celsius.At base station Safdarjung, the maximum temperature was recorded at 30.6 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal, against 29.2 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
As ‘good’ as it gets: Parts of capital soak in air benefits of Sept showers
The city also saw its air quality improve within the ‘satisfactory’ category. The AQI at 4pm Sunday was 53 — the best air quality Delhi has seen since July 9, when it stood at 48. In many parts, the air quality was recorded in the ‘good’ category.On Monday, the minimum temperature is expected in the 20-22 degrees range while the maximum is likely to hover around 31-33 degrees Celsius. As per Met, no showers are expected from Monday onwards.Met said very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall was recorded due to a deep depression formation over the west-central bay – from Andra Pradesh to Odisha, Chhattisgarh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, UP till Uttarakhand.“A very large area saw intense rain activity, up to more than 30cm at many places in UP. The low minimum temperatures in Delhi and adjoining areas can be attributed to this large-scale rain,” Mishra said, adding that minimum temperature departures in UP, Chhattisgarh and eastern MP are running up to 4 degrees below normal.“The maximum temperature departure on Sunday was up to 10 degrees below normal in parts of UP; 5-7 degrees below normal in parts of Chhattisgarh and MP; and 7-8 degrees below normal in Uttarakhand. Even in Delhi, it was around four notches below normal in some parts,” he said, adding that the weather will soon turn dry, with monsoon withdrawal advancing to parts of UP and Punjab, and beyond.While Delhi saw monsoon retreat on Sept 23, two days before its normal withdrawal, with 728.6mm of rainfall (Safdarjung), which is considered normal and 16% above the average monsoon rainfall of 629.7mm, parts of the city recorded 5mm post-monsoon rainfall Saturday due to the depression and western disturbance feeding additional moisture in the region.Last year, the city recorded 41% surplus rainfall.
