Rain accompanied by thunderstorm and gusty winds brought brief relief from high pollution levels in the city

The change in weather is brought about by this year`s first intense western disturbance, the weather office said

By 8.30 am, Safdarjung recorded 1.3 mm of rainfall, while Palam also logged 1.3 mm. Lodi Road received 1.6 mm, Ridge 1.8 mm, Ayanagar 1.7 mm, Janakpuri 1.5 mm, and Mayur Vihar 1.0 mm, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD)

According to IMD`s forecast for the day, Delhi would see one or two spells of rain during the early to forenoon hours and another spell of very light to light rain in the the afternoon and evening

The weather alert has been downgraded from orange to yellow. The showers led to a significant shift in air quality as Delhi`s AQI stood at 293 in the "poor" category, according to the CPCB`s Sameer app, an improvement from 313 recorded at 4 pm on Thursday. Of the monitoring stations, 23 were in the "very poor" category, 15 in "poor", and one station recorded "moderate" air quality