Delhiites woke up to a pleasant and cool morning with minimum temperature settling at 23 degrees Celsius, 7 notches below normal, while India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a generally cloudy sky with moderate rain on Friday. The maximum temperature in the city is expected to settle at 32 degrees Celsius, it said.

“Light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of South-West Delhi ( Jafarpur, Nazafgarh), Mahendargarh, Rewari, Narnaul, Bawal (Haryana) Tizara, Khairthal, Kotputli, Alwar, Viratnagar, Nadbai (Rajasthan) during next 2 hours,” IMD’s RWFC tweeted.The relative humidity at around 8:30 am was recorded at 93 per cent, IMD said.

Delhi welcomed the first monsoon showers on Thursday morning. As per the data provided by the IMD, the national capital witnessed 117 millimetre of rainfall from 8:30 am on Thursday to 8:30 am on Friday.

The southwest monsoon usually arrives in the national capital on June 27 and covers the entire country by July 8.The rain brought much-needed respite from the scorching heat, several areas in the capital, including the newly-inaugurated Pragati Maidan tunnel, ITO, Ring Road, the Barapullah corridor, the Delhi-Meerut expressway and Sarai Kale Khan, witnessed waterlogging leading to massive traffic snarls.

The air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded in ‘moderate’ (123) category around 9:30 AM, data from SAFAR showed.An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.