Delhi likely to receive heavy showers over the weekend, says Met

An orange alert is issued when there is a forecast of rain and thundershowers, along with heavy rainfall in isolated pockets, accompanied by gusty winds of 30-40 kmph

The national capital received little rainfall on Thursday, two days after the southwest monsoon arrived in the city after running a 16-day delay. However, the weather office said a good spell of showers is in sight, and issued an ‘orange’ alert for Sunday, predicting heavy rains across Delhi.

IMD officials said the Capital is likely to receive steady rainfall between July 19 and July 21. (HT photo)

“Rainfall activity is expected to start from Saturday night and intensify on Sunday morning. This is because the monsoon trough line, which at present is from Gujarat to the Bay of Bengal, will shift to the northern plains, resulting in intense rainfall and thunder in Delhi and its satellite towns, including Noida and Gurugram,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department’s regional weather forecasting centre. He added the showers will lead to lower temperatures.

An orange alert is issued when there is a forecast of rain and thundershowers, along with heavy rainfall in isolated pockets, accompanied by gusty winds of 30-40 kmph.

On Thursday, the Safdarjung observatory, considered to be representative of the city, received only “traces” (rainfall up to 2.4mm) of rain. The maximum temperature was 36.6 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s normal, and the minimum was four degrees below normal at 23.4 °C. The Lodhi Road weather station, too, recorded only trace rainfall.

IMD officials said the Capital is likely to receive steady rainfall between July 19 and July 21. “This period is likely to have good cloud cover, light to moderate rain or thundershowers with gusty winds. This will lead to a drop of almost 4-5 degrees in the maximum temperature,” said a senior IMD official.

On Wednesday, Delhi recorded 54.6mm of rain, with some areas receiving more than 100mm rain.

The southwest monsoon arrived in Delhi on Tuesday, after a string of incorrect predictions by the IMD. This is the most delayed onset of monsoon in the Capital since 2002, when monsoon rains arrived on July 19. According to the weather office, monsoon usually sets in Delhi by June 27.

Independent forecasters, too, said good rainfall is likely in the region over the weekend.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of Skymet, a private weather forecaster, said Delhi is likely to have continuous and “typical” monsoon rains from July 18 to 20. “The monsoon trough will start shifting from central parts of the country to the northwest from July 17. It is likely to result in moderate to heavy rainfall over Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh and parts of east and north Rajasthan on July 18. The showers will continue on and off thereafter till at least July 20,” said Palawat.