Rain, hailstorm lash Delhi; mercury to fall on Saturday

New Delhi: A hailstorm and heavy rains lashed the capital on Friday, bringing the chill back. The Met department has forecast a cold Saturday.

The maximum temperature plummeted four notches below average to 16.4 degrees Celsius. Commuters had a tough time with long traffic snarls on Delhi`s arterial roads. The rain had started in the national capital on Thursday night, followed by a hailstorm. A total of 12.5 mm of rain was recorded in the day. While the minimum temperature was 11.3 degrees Celsius, four notches above average, the Met department has forecast Saturday`s minimum temperature to be around 7 degrees. "There will be fog on Saturday morning but the sky will be clear in the day," said an official. Earlier on Friday, several key roads - including the arterial ones connecting Delhi to satellite towns of Gurgaon and Noida, the peripheral Ring Road - and several others were choked with long lines of vehicles as traffic moved at a snail`s pace. There was no fog and visibility was a good 2,600 meters at 8.30 am. IANS