New Delhi:
Rain and cool winds on Sunday brought down the mercury in Delhi by five notches, with the maximum temperature reaching 28.3 degrees Celsius and helping the national capital record the best air quality this year.
According to the Commission For Air Quality Management (CAQM), Delhi recorded the best air quality of the year on Sunday.
Delhi’s 24-hour air quality index fell in the ‘good’ category with a reading of 45 on Sunday.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
“Delhi today recorded the best air quality in the current year with an average AQI of 45 (‘Good’ AQI category). Earlier this year, Delhi recorded an air quality index of 54 and 59 (‘Satisfactory’) on September 9. and July 29 respectively,” CAQM said in a post on
The minimum temperature was measured at 23.5 degrees Celsius, two steps below the seasonal average.
The Safdarajung Observatory, the official marker of the national capital, recorded 1.3 mm of rain between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm. The observatories at Palam, Lodhi Road, Ayanagar, Narela and Gurgaon recorded 0.2 mm, 0.8 mm, 3 mm, 1.5 mm and 7.5 mm of rain respectively during the period.
The humidity fluctuated between 86 percent and 100 percent.
The Delhi Municipal Corporation received reports of waterlogging at five places and trees were uprooted at 16 places. The Public Works Department received calls about waterlogging from Mundka and Narela, among others.
The New Delhi Municipal Council’s Disaster Management Center (NDMC) has received 70 complaints in the last two days. Of these, 26 were received late on Saturday, while the remaining arrived at 11am on Sunday.
Reported problems included incidents of minor flooding, fallen tree leaves and faulty road lighting, requiring quick action.
Officials said 19 cases of waterlogging were resolved quickly at crucial locations including Janpath, Sikandra Road, C-Hexagon, Copernicus Marg, Barakhamba Road, Harish Chander Mathur Lane and Kautilya Marg.
The collected water was removed by manual efforts and supersopper machines. In addition, stagnant water in potted plants was also removed from prominent places.
The venue of the G20 summit and most of the hotels where the delegates stayed are in areas under the jurisdiction of the NDMC.
The weather bureau has forecast mostly cloudy skies for Monday, with a chance of very light rain or drizzle in one or two places. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to reach 32 and 24 degrees Celsius respectively.
Air quality is likely to remain in the ‘satisfactory’ category from Monday to Wednesday.
In a statement earlier in the day, Raj Niwas officials said Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena thanked the ‘rain gods’ who made the stay of the visiting dignitaries for the G20 summit all the more special by lowering temperatures and improving the air quality index.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)