Rain in Delhi crosses 300mm threshold in just 11 days in July: IMD

The intensity of the rains will come down in the coming days, as IMD said that only light rain is expected until July 14.

Just 11 days into July, Delhi has already recorded more than 300mm of rainfall this month, already making it the third wettest July in the last 15 years, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.

A flooded neighbourhood at Yamuna Bazar in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

Read here: Seven Haryana dists more affected by excessive rainfall

The Capital’s long-period average (LPA) mark for rain in July is 209.7mm — a point that Delhi crossed on July 9. The city’s rain for July is currently in the “surplus” category.

Delhi recorded 8.3mm of rainfall at Safdarjung, the base weather station for the Capital, in a 24-hour period till 8.30am on Tuesday, taking the monthly rainfall total so far to 306.6mm. No rain was recorded at Safdarjung after 8:30am, however, isolated parts of Delhi received a drizzle.

This followed the 261mm of rain the city logged between 8.30am on Saturday and 5.30pm on Sunday — 125% of the amount it receives on average over the entire month of July.

In comparison, Delhi in July 2022 received 286.3mm rain, while in July 2021, the city logged 507.1mm rainfall. July 2003 was the wettest on record, when the Capital recorded 632.2mm of rainfall.

IMD said that in the coming days, the intensity of the rains will come down and only light rain is expected until July 14, with light to moderate rain to return on July 15-16, when the monsoon trough, which is now further south of Delhi, once again moves northwards.

“Rain intensity will be low till July 14... with parts of Delhi-NCR to mainly record light rain or a drizzle. Activity will pick up on July 15 and 16, once the trough moves northwards again, hovering around Delhi-NCR, UP and Punjab and bringing light to moderate rain. On July 17, we may again see light rain,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, IMD.

Till 8:30am on Tuesday, light to moderate rain was recorded in Delhi, with the highest — 41.5mm recorded at Pusa station, followed by 37mm at Mayur Vihar and 29.9mm at Ridge station. Between 8:30am and 5:30pm on Tuesday, only two stations — Najafgarh (2.5mm) and Lodhi road (trace) recorded rainfall.

“Rain activity over Delhi-NCR on Tuesday, during the day, was fairly limited. On-and-off scattered rain is expected over isolated parts of NCR in the next three days, with cloudiness to persist,” Srivastava added.

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature stood at 32.5 degrees Celsius (°C) on Tuesday — three degrees below normal. The minimum stood at 24.4°C, which too was three degrees below normal. On Wednesday, the maximum is likely to rise to 34°C, while the minimum will remain around 24°C, according to officials.

According to IMD, “LPA of rainfall is the rainfall recorded over a particular region for a given interval (like month or season) average over a long period like 30 years, 50 years, etc”.

Six of the seven months so far this year have now seen excess rainfall, with February being an exception as no rain was recorded that month. Delhi received 20.4mm of rainfall in January, an excess of 7% over an LPA of 19.1mm. In March, there was an excess of 206%, with 53.2mm of rainfall against an LPA of 17.4mm. In April, 20.1mm was recorded against a normal mark of 16.3mm —an excess of 23%. In May, the 111mm rainfall made it Delhi’s fourth wettest May between 1991 till 2023, with an excess of 262% over the monthly normal mark of 30.3mm. June saw Delhi record 101.7mm of rain, an excess of 37% over the LPA of 74.1mm.

Read here: U.P. records 11% excess rainfall; western dists witness 60% surplus: IMD

In terms of air quality, Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) stood at 69 (satisfactory), according to CPCB data.