Delhi records an excess of 206% rainfall in March

The maximum temperature on Friday settled at 28.5 degrees Celsius, below the normal of 32 degrees Celsius for this time of the year. The average maximum temperature in March in Delhi was 30.9 degrees Celsius, below the average of 32.9 degrees recorded in March last year and 33.1 degrees recorded in March 2021. In 2020, March recorded a lower average maximum temperature of 28.2 degrees Celsius.

While there were seven days of rainfall in March this year, there was a higher number of 10 rainy days in March 2020, when the Safdarjung weather station recorded a total of 109.6 mm of rainfall in March. Multiple western disturbances have affected Delhi and the plains of northwest India in March this year, with the current such western disturbance lying over north Pakistan and the neighbourhood, according to the IMD.

Meanwhile, the air quality improved to be in the ‘satisfactory’ category on Friday, with an AQI of 73, down from 170 on Thursday, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

In a communication issued on Friday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has said that Delhi has seen the maximum number of ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ AQI days from January 1 to March 31 this year when compared to the same period in the past six years, except for 2020.

In 2023, there were 35 days when the AQI was in the ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ categories, while there were 27 such days in 2022, 13 such days in 2021, 38 days in 2020, 32 days in 2019, 24 days in 2018, and 17 such days in 2017.