New Delhi

Delhi residents woke up to cloudy skies and a windy, pleasant morning on Friday as the minimum temperature dropped to 22.8 degrees Celsius after an overnight rain.

The city's base weather monitoring station, Safdarjung, recorded a minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees Celsius, 5.2 notches below normal, marking a sharp 24-hour fall of 7.2 degrees.

Among the other stations, Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 21.6 degrees Celsius, 6.5 notches below normal, registering a 24-hour decline of 7 degrees.

Lodhi Road recorded 22 degrees Celsius, 6 notches below normal, down 6.8 degrees from the previous day.

Ridge logged a minimum of 20.9 degrees Celsius, 5.7 notches below normal, witnessing a 24-hour drop of 7.5 degrees, while Ayanagar recorded 22.6 degrees Celsius, 4.9 notches below normal, with the sharpest decline of 8 degrees.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 34 degrees Celsius.

The weather office has forecast thunderstorms accompanied by light rainfall, lightning and gusty winds of 40-50 kilometres per hour during the forenoon, afternoon and evening hours.

The 24-hour cumulative rainfall recorded till Friday morning stood at 11.2 mm at Safdarjung, 4.2 mm at Palam, 9.8 mm at Lodhi Road, 6 mm at Ridge and 12.4 mm at Ayanagar, according to the IMD.

Mahesh Palawat, Vice-President (Meteorology and Climate Change) at Skymet Weather, said gusty winds and isolated rain activity across the region were being driven by a cyclonic circulation over central Pakistan and adjoining areas.

He said pre-monsoon activity is expected to intensify from Thursday onwards, bringing fairly widespread rainfall across Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.

Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 93 in the "satisfactory" category at 9 am on Friday.

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According to the Central Pollution Control Board's AQI scale, a reading between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor" and 401-500 "severe".