Dust storm and rain pummel Delhi-NCR; thunderstorms forecast next week

S P S Mayur Vihar station recorded the highest rainfall on Saturday (12.5 mm), followed by Ridge (7.8 mm), Delhi University (7.5 mm), Pitampura (2 mm), and Palam (1.2 mm). Ayanagar and Pusa received very light rainfall, and Lodhi Road saw only trace amounts, as per IMD data. Gurgaon recorded 0.5 mm of rainfall, it added.

Around 6 pm on Saturday, the IMD issued a nowcast stating, “…Very light rainfall or drizzle is very likely to occur at a few places in Delhi including Punjabi Bagh, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Buddha Jayanti Park, President House, Rajiv Chowk, Delhi Cantt, India Gate, Safdarjung, Lodi Road, Nehru Stadium, R K Puram, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, and Kalkaji during the next two hours.”

The maximum temperature on Saturday settled at 40.8 degrees Celsius, close to normal, while the minimum was two degrees below normal at 24.3 degrees Celsius.

The IMD has forecast a partly cloudy sky with chances of thunder and lightning on Sunday. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle around 42 degrees Celsius and 28 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Thunderstorms with rain are expected from May 19 to May 21. On May 22, rain or thunderstorms may continue, with temperatures ranging between 27 and 39 degrees Celsius, said IMD. It added that May 23 is expected to have a partly cloudy sky.

Heat wave conditions are likely over West Rajasthan from May 17 to 23, Uttar Pradesh and North Madhya Pradesh from May 17 to 19, and Jammu division on May 17 and 18, the IMD bulletin stated.

So far this month, Delhi has recorded rainfall of 92.4 mm, against the normal average of 11.4 mm. While the highest rainfall in the month of May was recorded at 165 mm in 2008, May 2021 recorded 144.8 mm of rain, the IMD said. Rainfall this May is at least 712% above the usual May average, said IMD officials.

A senior IMD official said, “In association with frequent western disturbances and moisture incursion from both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, frequent thunderstorm activity has occurred over Northwest India during the past 20 days, leading to above normal rainfall and normal to below normal maximum temperatures. The second-highest 24-hr cumulative rainfall since 1901 was recorded over Delhi on May 2, 2025.”

Meanwhile, at 7 pm on Saturday, Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 153, in the ‘moderate’ category. This was a slight improvement from Friday’s AQI of 278, in the ‘poor’ category. The Commission for Air Quality Management had invoked Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Friday due to the lack of improvement in the air quality.

The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has forecast that the AQI will fluctuate between ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ over the next six days.

Light rainfall and thunderstorms, accompanied by gusty winds, had hit parts of Delhi-NCR earlier this week, following dust-laden winds from Pakistan and western Rajasthan that pushed the AQI to ‘poor’ levels and reduced visibility.