Monsoon withdrawal in Delhi unlikely to take place soon: IMD

On Sunday, parts of Delhi received drizzle with IMD forecasting light rain on Monday as well.

New Delhi: With the monsoon unlikely to retreat from the region anytime soon, the Delhi NCR will continue to witness scattered rain activity over the next couple of days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Commuters seen during heavy rains at Panchkuian Road in New Delhi. (Photo by Sanchit Khanna/ Hindustan Times)

Read here: IMD's ‘extremely heavy rainfall' alert for Gujarat, 'red' alert for Madhya Pradesh: Details

Met department officials said that northwest India will continue to receive rain over the next three or four days, as the monsoon trough is passing through Rajasthan while an active weather system is also prevalent over Madhya Pradesh. The normal date for withdrawal of the southwest monsoon in Delhi is September 25, they added.

On Sunday, parts of Delhi received drizzle with IMD forecasting light rain on Monday as well. The met department had issued a yellow alert for Sunday with a forecast of strong surface winds, overcast skies and light rain.

“There was scattered drizzle in some parts of Delhi on Sunday. Cloudiness will continue to prevail over the next few days, with the combination of an active weather system over Madhya Pradesh and the monsoon trough bringing rain to northwest India,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD. He added that an active rain spell over northwest and central India meant that the withdrawal of monsoon was yet to commence from anywhere across the country.

Srivastava said that typically the monsoon withdrawal commences from Rajasthan on September 17, with it occurring on September 25 in Delhi.

“Until there is rain across the region, the withdrawal will not be declared. Once there is a break in rain activity and several districts are dry, then the withdrawal criteria can be met,” he said.

In the 24-hour period till 8.30am on Sunday, Delhi received 11.9mm of rainfall. In the next nine hours till 5:30 pm, “trace” rainfall was recorded. A total of 66.2mm of rainfall has been recorded in September so far, with the normal monthly rainfall mark being 123.4mm.

In August, Delhi recorded only 91.8mm of rainfall — a deficit of 61% as compared to the monthly normal mark of 233.1mm for August. This was the second lowest monthly rainfall total for August in Delhi in at least 14 years. In comparison, July had recorded 384.6mm of rainfall — an excess of 83% over the monthly normal.

Read here: Rain intensifies in Madhya Pradesh, monsoon activity to pick up in these states

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature in Delhi on Sunday was recorded at 33.1 degrees Celsius (°C) – a degree below normal. The minimum was recorded at 24.3°C – one degree below normal as well.

Forecast for Monday shows that the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 34°C and 25°C respectively.