It was a pleasant and cool day in Delhi on Friday with the maximum temperature settling at 31.9 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal, the India Meteorological Department said.

The minimum temperature settled at 23 degrees Celsius, which was also five notches below normal.?

Rainfall recorded during the past nine hours till 5:30 pm was 1.9 mm, said IMD, adding that humidity levels oscillated between 93 per cent to 84 percent.

The weather office has predicted a cloudy sky with light rain and thunderstorm for Saturday. The maximum and minimum temperature is likely to be around 34 and 24 degrees Celsius, respectively, the IMD said.

Delhi welcomed the first monsoon showers on Thursday.

According to data provided by the IMD, the capital witnessed 117 millimetres of rainfall from 8:30 am on Thursday to 8:30 am on Friday. This was the maximum rainfall in the month of July since 2013, an IMD official said.

The southwest monsoon usually arrives in the national capital on June 27?and covers the entire country by July 8.

The rains on Thursday brought much-needed respite from the scorching heat, but several areas in the capital, including the newly-inaugurated Pragati Maidan tunnel, ITO, Ring Road, the Barapullah corridor, the Delhi-Meerut expressway and Sarai Kale Khan, witnessed waterlogging leading to massive traffic snarls.

The air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded in the 'satisfactory' (65) category around 7:22 PM, data from SAFAR showed.

An?AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.