Mercury on rise in Delhi, Wednesday becomes warmest in February

With mercury reaching 31.7 degree Celsius, seven notches above the season's average, making Wednesday the warmest February day for Delhi, the IMD said temperatures would further rise over next two days.

The minimum temperature also increased by two degrees on Wednesday recorded at 12.5 degree Celsius, a notch above the season's average.

The maximum temperature on Thursday is likely to hover around 32 degrees Celsius, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The near respite, according to weather analysts, is likely on February 23 and 24, as Delhi and neighbouring region may see rain showers and thunderstorm then.

"Due to possibility of a western disturbance, it is likely to rain towards the weekend so some respite is likely... however temperature will rise again towards Sunday, February 25 onwards," an IMD official told IANS.

Meanwhile, due to low winds, air quality of Delhi is also deteriorating persistently, with Air Quality Index (AQI) on the verge of being very poor (300 onwards), was on Wednesday found at 290, on a scale of 0 to 500 -- ranked "poor", against 279 on Tuesday and 271 on Monday.1

The humidity on Wednesday oscillated between the 38 to 91 per cent respectively.

Tuesday's maximum temperature was 29 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 10.1 degrees Celsius.

--IANS

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