Heavy rain to sweep across Delhi today, air quality to dip further

Cold wave coupled with heavy rain and hailstorm are likely to sweep across Delhi on Monday evening, a private weather forecasting agency said.

"Due to the presence of one after another active Western disturbance, rain and thundershowers will occur over Delhi-NCR between February 18 to 22.

On February 21, rains will increase over the region and during that time, we expect moderate rains accompanied with hailstorm activity over entire Delhi-NCR," said Skymet.

Due to the presence of light to moderate winds, air quality has shown marginal improvement with the Air Quality Index (AQI) docking at 204 in the morning, which falls in the 'poor' category, said state-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

However, experts have predicted that the air quality will deteriorate in the coming days.

"Between February 18 to 20, pollution levels will also increase but around February 21, pollution is expected to get washed away. 

Further, February 22 onwards, the weather will start clearing up over most parts of North and Northwest India including the national capital region," the organisation added.

Today, the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded in Delhi was 11 Degree Celsius and 23 Degree Celsius, respectively.

Humidity in the region throughout the day will oscillate between 70 per cent to 75 per cent, according to the India Meteorological Department.

On a closer look, the fresh Western Disturbance is now approaching the Western Himalayas. Apart from Delhi, states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are expected to receive light rain showers in the coming days.