NEW DELHI: Delhi has already seen more rain this monsoon than the seasonal average. The city has logged 843.1 mm, against the normal of 640.04 mm, which is a surplus of about 32%.Since June, the rainfall each month has been higher than the long-period average.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that monsoon conditions are likely to prevail over Delhi in the next four days. “There is a possibility of very light to light rain or thundershowers at most places with moderate rain on Friday. There are chances of very light to light rain thereafter,” a Met official said.
IMD’s data shows that of the total rainfall so far in this monsoon, nearly half — 400.1 mm — came in Aug. The month saw an excess rainfall of 72%, with two days of heavy rainfall of 64.5 mm. This Aug was the wettest since 2010.In June, too, Delhi got excess rainfall of 45%. Safdarjung, the city’s base station, logged 107.1 mm in June, against the normal of 74.1 mm. July was no different . That month, Delhi saw 259.3 mm of rainfall as against the July normal of233.1 mm. This was an excess of 24%.In Sept so far, the city has logged 76.6 mm of rainfall already. The normal monsoon withdrawal date for Delhi is Sept 25.IMD scientist Krishna Kumar said: “In the entire country, the rainfall thismonsoon till now is above normal. Out of 36 subdivisions in the country, only three in north-east India have seen a rainfall deficit. Even in north-west India, all areas, except eastern Uttar Pradesh, have seen excess rainfall.”Safdarjung recorded excess rainfall in the monsoon last year too, when Delhi logged 1,029.9 mm.The monsoon of 2023 and 2022 saw rainfall deficits. In 2023, the city received 660.8 mm. It got only 516.9 mm of rainfall in 2022. In a contrast, 2021 was the wettest monsoon since 1964 as Safdarjung logged 1,169.7 mm of rainfall.On Thursday, some parts of Delhi got very light rain. From 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, Safdarjung saw 2 mm of rain, Mayur Vihar 6.5 mm, the Ridge 5 mm, Palam 1.4 mm, Lodhi Road 2.4 mm, and Raghat 0.4 mm.The maximum temperature was 34.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The minimum temperature stood at 21.2 degrees Celsius, which was four notches below the normal. The relative humidity oscillated between 75% and 100%.
