NEW DELHI: The rain arrived overnight, and by morning the capital had its cleanest air in weeks and its wettest October day in four years.
Delhi recorded 61.4 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Friday, taking the month's cumulative total to 123.3 mm. The last time a single October day brought more was October 9, 2022, when the city got 74 mm. That entire month ended at 128 mm, a figure this October could pass with more showers forecast.
Jharoda Kalan recorded the highest 89 mm between 8.30 am on Thursday and 6 am on Friday. Lodi Road followed at 63 mm, Safdarjung at 56.5 mm, Jhajjar at 47 mm, Naraina at 44.5 mm, Pitampura at 42.5 mm, Pusa at 41.5 mm, Kamla Nehru Nagar in Ghaziabad at 41 mm, Pragati Maidan at 40.9 mm, Gurugram at 36 mm, Janakpuri at 35.5 mm and Muradnagar at 35 mm. Mayur Vihar got 9 mm and Jafarpur just 1 mm.
The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for every district of the capital at 8.15 am, valid until 11.15 am, warning of light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning at most places and heavy rain at isolated spots. Surface winds of 25 to 35 kmph, gusting to 45 kmph, were forecast. A yellow alert covered the rest of the day, with green codes from November 1.
The minimum temperature at Safdarjung, the base station, settled at 17.2 degrees Celsius, 1.1 degrees above normal. Palam recorded 15.4 degrees, 1.6 below normal. Thursday's maximum at Safdarjung was 25.4 degrees, 5.6 below normal and the lowest for an October day since October 8, 2022.
The Central Pollution Control Board put the Air Quality Index at 90 at 9.30 am, in the 'satisfactory' category, down sharply from levels above 200 earlier in the week. Thirty-six monitoring stations reported satisfactory air and 16 moderate.
The system behind it is the remnant of Cyclone Arnab, which weakened into a well-marked low pressure area over central Chhattisgarh at 5.30 pm on Thursday and is expected to weaken further over north-east Chhattisgarh. Uttar Pradesh has alerts for 75 districts, with heavy rain flagged for 21 including Gorakhpur, Ayodhya and Moradabad.
For commuters, there was one mercy. The Delhi Metro extended services on all lines except the Airport Express and Gurugram Rapid Metro till midnight for the Diljit Dosanjh concert at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where around 70,000 people were expected.