Heavy rains cause traffic snarls in parts of Delhi, air quality remains 'poor'

Rains lashed parts of Delhi-NCR on Wednesday bringing the mercury down by a few notches and causing traffic snarls at several intersections.

However despite the rains, the city's air quality remained in the 'poor' category, though improvement is predicted due to rains and high-velocity winds. The national capital's air quality index was 266 on Wednesday.

The overnight showers continued till the morning with the Safdarjung observatory recording 6 mm of rains, Palam 5.3 mm and the Ridge area received 6.8 mm. Lodhi Road and Aya Nagar observatories recorded 10 mm and 5.6 mm of rainfall respectively.

According to railway officials, 16 trains were running late in the Northern Railways division in the morning due to bad weather.

The maximum temperature recorded in the evening stood at 14.5 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature recorded in the morning was 9.3 degrees Celsius, three notches above the normal, the meteorological department said.

The city had on Tuesday recorded a low of 11.6 degrees Celsius, four notches above the normal, and a maximum of 19 degrees Celsius which was normal for this time of the year.

The weatherman has forecast partly cloudy sky with moderate fog on Thursday morning with the maximum and minimum temperatures hovering around 16 degrees Celsius and 9 degrees Celsius respectively.