Monsoon set to hit Delhi in next two days

In a bulletin issued on Saturday, the IMD said that conditions are favourable for the further advance of the southwest monsoon into some more parts of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, most parts of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gujarat, eastern Rajasthan, and Punjab during the next two days.

In Delhi, moderate rainfall is expected on Sunday and the IMD has issued an ‘orange’ alert for the day, which is a warning to be prepared for possible impacts like traffic disruption and waterlogging.

Light to moderate rainfall is likely to continue on Monday and Tuesday, and the IMD has issued ‘yellow’ alerts for both days – a warning to be aware. The bulletin issued on Saturday pointed to the possibility of isolated heavy rainfall in parts of Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab on Sunday and Monday.

Overcast skies and light rainfall or thundershowers are expected on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as well, next week.

Rainfall is set to bring relief from the sultry days that the city has been seeing over the past week on account of easterly winds bringing moisture – the maximum relative humidity recorded on Saturday was as high as 81%, a little lower than the maximum figure of 92% recorded on Friday.

Till 5.30 pm, the city recorded no rainfall on Saturday. The maximum temperature, which was 37.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday, is likely to fall to around 32 degrees on Monday, the IMD forecast indicates.

Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, IMD, said, “Conditions are favourable… we are expecting that the monsoon onset in Delhi will be close to the normal onset date. The remnants of Cyclone Biparjoy lay over Uttar Pradesh for some time. A low-pressure system over that area contributed to the possibility of rainfall activity.”

Last year, the monsoon arrived in Delhi on June 30, while it hit the city on July 13 in 2021, and on June 25 in 2020. From 1960 to 2021, there have been 33 years when the monsoon arrived in Delhi only in July, IMD data shows, and the latest that it has hit Delhi was on July 27 in 1987. During this period, the earliest that the monsoon arrived in Delhi was June 9 in 1961.

The monsoon season had left Delhi with a rainfall deficit of 19% at the Safdarjung weather station last year. In 2021, when the monsoon had arrived long after its normal onset date, Safdarjung recorded a large excess in rainfall during the season.

While the IMD forecast has said that the monsoon rainfall over the country is likely to be ‘normal,’ rainfall for the season is expected to be below normal or less than 92% of the long-period average over northwest India.