Owing to Cyclone Daye, it was a cloudy Saturday morning in the national capital with light rains recorded in few parts. The minimum temperature recorded was 22.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season’s average.

“The sky will remain cloudy throughout the day. A few spells of light to moderate rains and thundershowers are likely to occur. One or two spells may be intense,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 31 degrees Celsius, he said, adding that the humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 91 per cent.

The city has received 26.8 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Friday’s maximum temperature settled at 34 degrees Celsius, one notch below the season’s average while the minimum temperature was recorded at 23.6 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.

Cyclonic storm ‘Daye’ made landfall in Odisha on Friday morning, causing heavy rainfall in several parts of the state.

The tropical storm had weakened into a deep depression soon after making landfall. The Depression over Vidarbha and the adjoining East Madhya Pradesh has moved west/northwestwards during past six hours and now lies over Southwest Madhya Pradesh and neighborhood. It is likely to move northwestwards and weaken into a good mark low-pressure area during next 24 hours, Skymet weather report said.

Under the influence of the system, the pattern of the winds has already changed from dry north-westerlies to humid southeasterly over the plains of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi-NCR, it added.

Widespread rainfall across Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh on Saturday brought miseries to farmers as untimely showers have affected the standing paddy crop in the agrarian states.

The maximum temperature at most places has been below normal due to the downpour, weather officials said here.

Farmers in both Punjab and Haryana said the rain during this period was not good as the harvesting of the paddy crop was on.

Reports said that the paddy crop, which is almost ready for harvest, was damaged in some areas.

In Chandigarh, traffic was affected as water accumulated at many places in the city. Complaints of water-logging were also received by authorities in the adjoining towns of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab.

Traffic on highways in Punjab and Haryana was slow due to the rain.

The Punjab government on Friday issued an alert for heavy rains across the state till September 24.

As per information received from the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the state is likely to experience widespread rainfall from late Saturday to Monday, a government spokesman told IANS.

He said many districts in Doaba, Majha, and Malwa were very likely to get very heavy rains, even more than 12 cm, during this period.

(With agency inputs)