Delhi: Monsoon trough shifting, little rain likely ahead, says IMD

Safdarjung, the base weather station, recorded a maximum temperature of 29.4 degrees Celsius (°C) — five degrees below normal for this time of the year

Light rains across the city led to a sharp drop in temperature on Wednesday, making the city’s weather cool and pleasant after a couple of sultry days.

Commuters wade through a waterlogged stretch at Pandav Nagar underpass following rains in Delhi on Wednesday. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Safdarjung, the base weather station, recorded a maximum temperature of 29.4 degrees Celsius (°C) — five degrees below normal for this time of the year, and lower than Tuesday’s 35.8°C. The minimum temperature on Wednesday stood at 26.8°C.

The station also recorded 0.2mm of rainfall in the 24 hours till 8:30am on Wednesday. In the next nine hours, another 6.4mm was recorded, IMD data till 5.30 pm showed.

Thursday is likely to only see isolated drizzle , as the monsoon trough, which is north of Delhi, is now expected to shift further northwards and move to the foothills, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. No rain is expected in Delhi from Friday, it added.

“The monsoon trough was just north of Delhi on Wednesday and it brought rain to large parts of Delhi-NCR. We have mainly recorded light rain in Delhi and light to moderate rain in Haryana and UP,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD, adding that the trough will start shifting from Thursday morning and the end of August is likely to be dry again.

Meanwhile, waterlogging was reported from Rohtak road, with the traffic police issuing an alert at around noon for traffic being affected on both carriageways there from Rajdhani Park towards Tikri Border.

With Wednesday’s spell, August has so far recorded 91.4mm of rainfall. The monthly normal mark for rainfall in August is 233.1mm.

The rain also helped Delhi’s air quality improve, as it returned to the satisfactory range on Wednesday. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was 71 (satisfactory) on Wednesday. It was 106 (moderate) a day earlier.