Delhi rains: Wind speeds touching 75 km/hr cause significant drop in temperature

Met department officials said that isolated spells of very light rain may occur in the second half of the day as well, with the maximum temperature expected to be around 33 degrees Celsius

NEW DELHI: The national capital region on Monday witnessed light-to-moderate rainfall since early morning, accompanied by strong winds of around 75 km/hr as of 7 am, causing flight disruptions and waterlogging in several parts of Delhi.

A commuter protects himself from gusty winds and heavy rainfall in Delhi NCR on Monday. (PTI Photo)

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), this is the first moderate-to-high intensity storm of the season, as March and April only recorded dry thunder spells. There was also a sharp drop in minimum temperature owing to the storm today, with an 11-degrees Celsius drop occurring between 5:40 am (29) and 7 am (18).

Delhi’s minimum temperature was recorded at 17.1 degrees Celsius on Monday morning – nine degrees below normal for this time of the year – against 23.1 degrees Celsius recorded on Sunday.

“It is at 7 am too that the highest wind speed of around 75 km/hr was recorded at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport. One of the key impacts of this spell was also the sharp drop in surface temperature and this spell is likely to have a cooling effect for the next few days too, keeping heatwave away until May 28 at least,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IM.

Met officials are of the opinion that such summer storms are not unusual. However, Delhi has this year not seen any active western disturbance sufficient enough to bring such rainfall or such gusty winds.

“This is the first moderate-to-high intensity storm of the season. We consider summer season March 1 onwards, and while the normal occurrence of thunderstorms from March till May-end are 12-14 days, this year, we have only seen 4-5 days. They too have mostly been dry thunder spells,” Jenamani added.

IMD data showed that Safdarjung, the base station for Delhi’s weather records, received 12.3 mm of rainfall till 8:30 am today, while 52.2 mm of rainfall was recorded at Ayanagar. Palam received 27.6 mm of rainfall, while Lodhi road area and the Ridge received 13.8 mm and 14.2 mm, respectively.

Delhi witnessed a dry spell in the month of March, and only 0.3 mm of rainfall in April. Till yesterday, May recorded only 3 mm of rainfall.

The IMD classifies rainfall as ‘light’ when it is between 2.5 and 15.5 mm, ‘moderate’ when it is between 15.6 mm and 64.4 mm, and ‘heavy’ when it exceeds 64.5 mm in a single day.

Met officials said that isolated spells of very light rain may occur in the second half of the day as well, with the maximum temperature expected to be around 33 degrees Celsius.