Max temp dips after rains in Delhi, pollution level increases slightly

Widespread rains in the national capital on Thursday brought the maximum temperature down to 16.4 degrees Celsius, three notches below the normal, but the pollution level increased slightly.

The minimum temperature, however, increased to 9.5 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal, due to cloud cover, the meteorological department said.

On Wednesday, the city recorded a low of 6.4 degrees Celsius, and a maximum temperature of 19.9 degrees Celsius.

The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, recorded 4 mm of rainfall. The weather stations at Lodi Road, Ridge, Ayanagar and Palam recorded 6.4 mm, 2.8 mm, 1.7 mm and 0.8 mm of rains respectively.

However despite rains, the pollution levels in the national capital increased slightly as the overall air quality index stood at 281 at 4 pm, up from 218 on Wednesday.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor" and 401-500 "severe".

Moderate to dense fog is expected in the national capital on Friday while the maximum and minimum temperatures will hover around 17 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius respectively, the weather office said.