Delhi was in dire need of relief amid an intense heat wave over the past few weeks and heavy rains and thunderstorms have done just that. The capital recorded a minimum temperature of 17.2 degrees – the lowest in a decade – as the mercury dropped around 11 degrees Celsius in nearly an hour and a half on Monday morning, the private weather agency said Skymet Weather. Before that, the lowest temperature Delhi experienced in May was 15.2 degrees in 1982, he added.

According to Skymet Weather, the mercury in Delhi dropped “10 degrees in an hour” on Monday morning. The temperature dropped from 29 degrees at 5:30 a.m. to 19 degrees at 6:30 a.m. “Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 17.2 degrees today. May 23, its lowest level of the decade in May. The record is 15.2 degrees on May 2, 1982. Heat wave will not return anytime soon in North India including Delhi NCR,” tweeted Skymet VP Mahesh Palawal.

Many parts of the nation’s capital and nearby towns were waterlogged due to heavy downpours. Power outages were also reported.

On Sunday, Safdarjung – considered Delhi’s key weather monitoring center – recorded a maximum temperature of 39.3 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal for this time of year and three below the maximum of on Saturday, the PTI news agency reported. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 23.1°C, three degrees below normal.

Last week the city hit a new record high when a tormenting heatwave pushed the maximum temperature in the city to 49 degrees.

Weather update in other states

The meteorological service also predicted a drop in maximum temperatures of 3-4C in other parts of northwest India over the next two days and no significant change thereafter.

Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and eastern Rajasthan could also see scattered rains on Monday. Thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds in Bihar, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha over the next five days are highly likely. The southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may also receive moderate rainfall over the next three days.