New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) Heavy showers lashed Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) on Friday morning bringing much-needed relief from the sweltering heat and pushing air pollution levels down to "satisfactory" at most stations.

Parts of Delhi-NCR also received rains around midnight.

Till 8.30 a.m, city's base station Safdarjung, recorded 7.2 mm rainfall, Lodhi Road 5.6 mm, Palam 5.2 mm, Ridge 3.0 mm and Aya Nagar 5.2 mm rainfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) data showed.

Lodhi Road, Ridge and Aya Nagar received rainfall between 11.30 p.m. on Thursday till 2.30 a.m. Friday, while for other stations it was 2.30 a.m. onwards till about 7-7.30 a.m.

The latest heat wave spell over Delhi-NCR seems to have abated - at least for now with moderate rains lashing many areas in the wee hours even on Thursday. IMD had predicted moderate rain and thundershowers for Friday.

According to the IMD, the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 37 and 26 degrees Celsius respectively.

The showers had another pleasant impact as it settled all the dust and brought down air pollution levels. At 10 a.m. Ashok Vihar in north Delhi reported an AQI of 90; Lodhi Road 82; CRRI Mathura Road 108; Dwarka Sec 8 102; Patparganj 92; Rohini 96; Aurobindo Marg 89 and Shadipur showed an AQI of 101.

Air Quality Index (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'.

QIA over 401 is considered 'severe'.