With heavy rain lashing the capital and pushing the mercury down by a few notches, Friday turned out to be damp and cold for Delhi residents. According to the Met department, the city might experience light rain and fog over the next few days. While the minimum temperature in the capital was 12 °C, the maximum temperature was recorded at 21.3 °C — four degrees below normal. The temperature is expected to rise by a degree or two in the next two days. The downpour witnessed on Thursday night and on Friday afternoon, ranging between 10 mm and 17.2 mm, were attributed to two powerful thunderstorms in the capital. “There were two thunderstorms, which moved across Delhi. The first one was seen yesterday night (2.30 am to 3.30 am on Friday) and today (from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm on Friday). The latter was very powerful as it entered Delhi from Southwest side, covered the whole of the city and moved out via Northeast Delhi around 5.30 pm. None of these storms caused strong winds,” R K Jenamani, director incharge, IGI Met office, said. As opposed to heavy fog witnessed in January this year, Met officials said fog formation in February had reduced. However, nearly half of February has seen cloudy or rainy days. Explaining the cause for the current weather conditions, Jenamani said the cloudy days can be attributed to western disturbances which had also caused snow in hilly regions. “Though similar active systems affected Delhi during February 2013, but the number of storm days were only five or six, while before since 2005, there were either no rainy days or just one to three days of rains,” Jenamani said.
