New Delhi: The city saw a humid day when the late afternoon heat index was 45.5 degrees Celsius. The Met, however, expects patchy rain in some parts of the city this week.The heat index, which at 2.30 pm was 45.5 degrees Celsius, came down to 44.4 degrees by around 5.30 pm. No rain was recorded over the past 24 hours, except for a drizzle at Lodhi Road Monday.Safdarjung, the city’s base station, recorded a maximum temperature of 35.6 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal, against 35.1 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The humidity oscillated between 63% and 87%.India Meteorological Department (IMD) said there are chances of light to very light rain Tuesday.Weather analysts also expect scattered rainfall between Sept 15 and 17. “There is possibility of rain on Sept 16 and 17, with some good spells likely due to confluence of weather systems which are northwest and southeast winds. This will increase the moisture content in the region,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-chairperson, Skymet.He also stated that the monsoon may retreat from west Rajasthan soon after Sept 20, and subsequently from Delhi as well. The normal monsoon withdrawal date for Delhi is Sept 25.IMD has said that a trough from a “cyclonic circulation associated with a low pressure area over southeast Rajasthan and adjoining north Gujarat to Jharkhand across Madhya Pradesh, north Chhattisgarh”, which extends up to 3.1 km above the mean sea level, persists. It described the western disturbance “as a trough in the middle tropospheric westerlies with its axis at 5.8 km above the mean sea level roughly”. IMD did not foresee significant change in the maximum temperatures in the next seven days.The maximum temperature Tuesday may hover around 32-34 degrees Celsius.The air quality remained satisfactory Monday at 79.
