New Delhi: Parts of Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on Saturday morning received light rainfall as the minimum temperature also went up to 18.2 degrees Celsius, five degrees above the normal from Friday’s 10.8 degrees.

The increase in the minimum can be attributed to the heavy cloud cover from Friday night, as heat cannot escape if there is an upper haze which affects the minimum temperature, weather department officials said.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), more showers are expected during the day in Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas of Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh.

“Most places will experience rain, accompanied by gusty winds of speed 40-50 kmph throughout Saturday. There is a possibility of hailstorm in one or two places,” said an IMD official.

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New Delhi Regional Meteorological Centre said that light to moderate intensity rain and gusty winds (30-50 Km/h) would occur over and adjoining areas of most places of Delhi (Safdarjung, Lodi Road, IGI Airport), NCR (Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad, Indirapuram).

The official added that this is due to the effect of western disturbances. “There is a possibility of a drizzle on Sunday morning as well but then it should clear out by Monday,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) improved significantly to 140 (moderate) from Friday’s 24-hour average of 208 (poor), according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) national bulletin. The Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi (AQEWS) has forecast the air quality to improve further.

“The air quality is likely to be in satisfactory category on Saturday and moderate on Monday and Tuesday. The outlook for the subsequent 6 Days is that the air quality is likely to be in the moderate category,” the AQEWS morning bulletin said.