Delhi gets year’s average rain by September, heavy rain alert today

Delhi weather: At around 10:20 am, the IMD issued a red alert for almost the entire city, barring the westernmost part of southwest Delhi.

Delhi woke up to a second day of showers on Saturday, a day after the capital crossed its annual average rainfall with nearly four months still left in the year.

Commuters wade through a waterlogged stretch. (Raj K Raj/HT Photos )

From January 1 to 8:30 am on Saturday, Delhi recorded 804.7mm of rain, surpassing the Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) annual long-period average of 774.4mm. The city crossed the mark on Friday itself after receiving 32.6mm of rain by 5:30 pm, taking its cumulative rainfall to around 800mm.

The rainfall recorded at the IMD’s Safdarjung weather station is considered representative of the city’s overall rainfall and is used to determine Delhi’s monthly rainfall figures.

Orange alert issued

The IMD has issued an orange alert for heavy rains throughout the day. Multiple spells of light to moderate rain are expected at many places, along with heavy rain with isolated places, during the forenoon, with light to moderate rain expected to continue during the afternoon and evening at most places.

Multiple parts of Delhi experienced light showers late on Friday night and early Saturday morning. The IMD stated that from Saturday morning to 10:30 am, Naraina recorded 12.5mm of rain, followed by Safdarjung (10.6), Pragati Maidan (9.6mm), Lodhi Road (7.5mm), and Mayur Vihar SPS (5mm).

At around 10:20 am, the IMD issued a red alert for almost the entire city, barring the westernmost part of southwest Delhi. “Moderate to Heavy Rain, moderate Thunderstorm with Lightning (wind speed 50-60 kmph) very likely over Delhi, except for the western half of the city, and an orange alert for the eastern half,” it stated.

Forecast for Sunday

The IMD has so far only predicted the possibility of very light to light rain on Sunday, while no rain is expected from Monday onwards.

The IMD categorizes rainfall up to 15.5mm as light, between 15.6mm to 64.4 mm as moderate, between 64.5mm to 115.5mm as heavy, and between 115.6 to 204.4 as very heavy.

The city's air has also remained clean due to the weather, with the Air Quality Index being recorded at 58 at 11:05 am, in the "satisfactory" category.

Due to the rain, today’s maximum temperature is expected to be between 29°C to 31°C, as compared to the IMD's normal maximum temperature for September 3 to 7 of 34.1°C.