Delhi temperatures plunge by up to 8 degrees Celsius after overnight rain

Delhi residents woke up to a sharp temperature drop and cooler air on Friday, June 12, 2026, after an overnight squall line brought rain and strong winds across the national capital. The base weather station at Safdarjung recorded a minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees Celsius, which was 5.2 degrees below normal and 7.2 degrees lower than the previous day.

The sudden cooling was caused by a fast-moving squall line—a continuous chain of intense thunderstorms—that developed over Punjab on Thursday evening. The system travelled eastwards across Haryana and into the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) overnight, bringing southeasterly winds gusting up to 65 kmph.

Krishna Mishra, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), explained that squall lines can extend across hundreds of kilometres. These systems are capable of producing brief but intense weather, including torrential rain, frequent lightning, and damaging straight-line winds.

The weather system caused a significant drop in temperatures across various parts of Delhi. Within 24 hours, minimum temperatures fell by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius citywide.

The weather station at Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 21.6 degrees Celsius, representing a drop of 6.5 degrees below normal. Meanwhile, Lodhi Road recorded 22 degrees Celsius and the Ridge weather station recorded 20.9 degrees Celsius.

Rainfall was recorded across multiple monitoring stations in the 24 hours leading up to 8:30 am on Friday. Ayanagar recorded the highest rainfall at 12.4 mm, followed by Safdarjung at 11.2 mm, Lodhi Road at 9.8 mm, and Jafarpur at 8.5 mm.

The cooling provided temporary relief from the intense pre-monsoon heat, even as global climate signals pointed to warming. On June 11, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that El Niño conditions had officially developed over the past month.

For Friday, the IMD issued a yellow alert for Delhi, forecasting cloudy skies with light to moderate rain, thunderstorms, and wind speeds gusting up to 60 kmph.