New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS): Thursday morning saw light showers across the national capital and adjoining areas that later developed into an orange alert warning as moderate to heavy rainfall was predicted for the day by the IMD.

Moderate to heavy rains will continue in the national capital till Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The city received 2 mm rainfall at Safdarjung observatory, in the last 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Thursday.

The maximum temperature on Wednesday was recorded at 35.3 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, while the minimum was at 24.8 degrees Celsius.

For Thursday, the MeT has forecast the maximum will hover around 32 degrees Celsius and the minimum around 25 degrees Celsius.

With Thursday's rain, it has increased the number of rainy days for September to 13, the second highest since 2011, according to the IMD.

According to MeT data, during the month of September (from 2011 to 2021), the highest number of days of rainfall in Delhi was recorded at 14 in September 2018, then the total rainfall in the month was recorded at 237.8 mm.

In September this year (till September 14) Delhi has received 432.9 mm rainfall.

The weather forecasting agency has also predicted strong winds in the national capital along with the rain.

At Delhi's Safdarjung observatory - on September 1, a total of 112.1 mm rainfall was recorded in the city, while on September 2, it was 117.3 mm; on September 3 it was recorded at 1.5 mm; on September 4, the city witnessed 0.7 mm rainfall; on September 7, total rainfall was recorded at 5.3 mm; on September 8, total rainfall in the city was recorded at 54.0 mm; on September 11, it was 94.7 mm; on September 12, the capital witnessed 41.1 mm rainfall; on September 13, it received 1.8 mm rainfall and on September 14, Delhi received 3.5 mm rainfall.

Meanwhile, the city's air quality improved marginally at some places and was 'good' with the Air Quality Index (AQI) at 46 at the US Embassy at 9 a.m. on Thursday.