Rain falls in Delhi-NCR, power demand soars on hottest day of year
Parts of the city received patches of light rain on Friday evening while the maximum temperature peaked to the highest so far this year. According to the forecast, rain will continue on Saturday and the temperature is expected to drop over the next few days.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Saturday.
The maximum temperature on Friday was logged at 42.3 degrees Celsius (°C) —1.9°C above normal and up from Thursday's 40.6°C. Before Friday, the highest maximum was recorded at 42.1°C on April 26. Delhi's minimum temperature was at 26.2°C on Friday — 0.3°C below normal and a marginal rise from 25.4°C a day ago.
According to the IMD forecast, the maximum temperature is expected to be around 41-43°C on Saturday, and go down to 39-41°C by Monday and 37-39°C by Tuesday. The minimum is expected to be around 27-29°C over the weekend and reduce further on the subsequent days.
Krishna Mishra, a scientist at IMD attributed the expected dip in temperature to rain. 'There is moisture coming in from the Arabian Sea. However, these south-westerlies are only in the low level of the atmosphere, which is why there was very light to light rain on Friday. This moisture is expected to continue coming in and there might be some thunderstorm activity in Delhi and neighbouring areas for the next five to seven days,' Mishra added.
'Similar weather conditions are expected to continue on Saturday, with strong gusty winds and dust raising winds in the early morning hours,' a Met official said.
Power demand peaks too
With the rise in temperature, the power demand in the city also shot up, at 6,867MW (megawatt) recorded at 3.17pm on Friday, according to data by the State Load Despatch centre (SLDC). This was the highest ever demand for electricity in the Capital for this time of the year.
As per the SLDC, the highest power demand till May 16 was 6,855MW in 2024, 5,781MW in 2023 and 6,829MW in 2022.
Delhi's peak power demand during the summer of 2025 may see a high of 9,000MW for the first time. Last year, the city's peak power demand had crossed 8,000MW for the first time.
'Peak power demand in BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) area of south and west Delhi, which had clocked 3,809MW during the summers of 2024, is expected to reach around 4,050MW this year. On the other hand, in Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Limited (BSES) Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) area of east and central Delhi, the peak power demand, which was 1,882MW last year this season, is expected to touch around 1,900MW this year,' BSES said in a statement, adding that the discom has strengthened the network and undertaken several measures to ensure reliable power supply in summer this year.
Meanwhile, the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL) said that they have successfully met peak power demand of 2,045MW on Friday.
'This is the season's highest so far without any network constraint and power disruption as Delhi touched season's high of 6,867MW amid the ongoing heat wave. Tata Power-DDL is fully equipped to ensure uninterrupted power supply through a multi-pronged approach that includes advanced avenues like 'Bilateral Agreements', 'Reserve Shutdown' & 'Power Exchange',' said a Tata Power-DDL official.
AQI
A day after the Capital remained choked with dust for several hours, the air quality of the city remained in the upper end of 'poor' category on Friday. Owing to the deteriorating AQI, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invoked Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) for the NCR on Friday.
The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 278 at 4pm on Friday, according to Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) daily bulletin. It was 292 (poor) on Thursday.
According to forecasts by the Air Quality Early Warning System in Delhi (AQEWS), the air quality is expected to remain 'poor' on Saturday as well, further improving to 'moderate' by Sunday.
'The air quality is likely to be in the poor category on Saturday and in the moderate category from Monday to Tuesday. The outlook for the subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in the moderate to poor category,' the AQEWS bulletin said on Friday evening.
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