Delhiites woke up to rain spells and cold breeze on Saturday while the North East district, including Dilshad Garden, Seemapuri, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Nand Nagari, Khajoori Khas and Gokul Puri, witnessed hailstorms, throwing vehicular traffic out of gear. Many residents were taken aback by the untimely rain.
The Delhi Traffic police was busy uploading traffic advisory every two hours on Twitter to avoid gridlock on city roads following the commencement of Art of living's (AOl) three-day World Culture Festival on Yamuna starting on Friday.
"Delhi experienced light rains in the morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 18.5 degrees Celsius - three notches above the season's average," said an official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), adding, "The city received 9.1 mm rainfall by 8.30 AM."
An analogy between the weather conditions of Friday and Saturday stated the difference of five degrees Celsius as Delhi observed 34 degrees Celsius on the former day. Also, the lowest temperature recorded on weekend was 15 degrees Celsius - four notches down to the prior day.
The IMD officer stated, "Delhi will see clouds throughout the day and can expect rains in coming week due to the active Western Disturbance over Jammu and Kashmir and its induced cyclonic circulation over West Rajasthan and adjoining Punjab region."
The officer from Skymet Weather stated, "Intermittent rains are likely to lash entire city during next two days, with isolated sharp and short spells of heavy showers. But intensity of rain will be more during evening and night hours. There is a possibility of thunder squalls at some places of the city.
In wake of the rain activity and cloud cover, we do not expect day temperatures to cross 30 degrees Celsius. However despite of rain on Friday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 33 degrees Celsius that was four degrees above normal. This was because the mercury had soared to mid 30s by the time the showers lashed the city."
Delhi has been witnessing above normal maximum temperatures for the last two days. In absence of any rain activity throughout the week, day maximums had been showing rising trend. On Thursday, city recorded day temperature of degrees Celsius at Safdarjung Observatory that was two degrees above normal, while, Palam Observatory notified 32.2 degrees Celsius - three degrees above normal. However, this fresh spell of rain will restrict the mercury from soaring beyond 30 degrees Celsius.
As per the data available at Skymet, the first three days of March have been the hottest in the past eight years. While the average temperature from March 1 to March 3 this year was 32.5 degrees Celsius. Delhi was this hot only in 2008 when the average temperature was recorded at 33.3 degrees Celsius, said the official.