Rain cleans Delhi’s air to ‘satisfactory’ levels, records coldest October day in 4 years; Haze settles over Mumbai
New Delhi : A sudden shift in weather brought much-needed respite to the national capital overnight as scattered rainfall and thunderstorms washed away lingering air pollution, dropping the Air Quality Index (AQI) into the ‘satisfactory’ range. Meanwhile, financial capital Mumbai woke up to a hazy morning skyline with dipping visibility across several neighbourhoods.
Delhi recorded its coldest October day in four years on October 29, after remnants of Cyclone Arnab interacted with a western disturbance, bringing rain, thunderstorms and dense cloud cover to the capital.
At Safdarjung, Delhi’s base weather station, the maximum temperature settled at 25.4°C on October 29, 5.6 degrees below normal. This is the lowest daytime high recorded in October in the last four years, after 23.4°C on October 8, 2022.
Due to persistent cloud cover, the minimum temperature rose to 19.2°C, about 3.1 degrees above normal. Isolated light to moderate rain and overnight drizzle were reported across Delhi-NCR, with Jharoda Kalan recording up to 49 mm rainfall.
Late Thursday night into Friday morning, rain soaked key areas of Delhi—including Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station and Jamia Millia Islamia—bringing down ambient temperatures and significantly diluting pollutant concentrations.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI near India Gate dropped to 93, placing it in the Satisfactory (51–100) category after days of ‘Poor’ air readings. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) noted that the showers followed a pre-forecast spell of light-to-moderate rain and thunderstorms across Delhi-NCR.
According to the weather office, generally cloudy skies with very light to light rain and isolated thunderstorms are expected in Delhi on Friday, October 30. The weather is likely to improve from Saturday, October 31, with partly cloudy skies and no warning in place. For November 1 and 2, the forecast indicates mainly clear skies and stable conditions, with green code weather across all districts.
In contrast to Delhi’s fresh air, parts of Mumbai experienced a notable drop in morning visibility on Friday. Visuals from the Wadala region showed a thin layer of haze obscuring the city skyline, as monitoring stations across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region logged varying levels of urban pollution.
Beyond Delhi, the weather office has issued alerts for southern peninsular India as a new weather system approaches from the Bay of Bengal. Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall is predicted over Coastal Karnataka, Kerala, South Interior Karnataka, Telangana and Coastal Andhra Pradesh between November 2 and 4.Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam are on alert for isolated very heavy rainfall on November 2 and 3. Strong gusty winds reaching up to 60 kmph along with thundersqualls are also expected over Telangana.
