Overnight rains add to cooling effect in Delhi, light spells may continue today

While the monsoon trough had been over central India over the last one week, an active phase of the monsoon is set to return over northwest India, including Delhi-NCR over the next five days, said Met officials

With the trough of the southwest monsoon shifting towards north India once again, large parts of Delhi received light but incessant showers overnight, making for a wet and cool Sunday morning. Delhi’s minimum temperature was recorded at 24.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday – four degrees below Saturday’s minimum and three notches below normal for this time of the year. Safdarjung, representational of Delhi’s weather, received 0.2mm of rainfall between 2.30 am and 5.30 am, with another 0.4mm in the next three hours to make it 30mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period since 8.30 am on Saturday.

Light rainfall is forecast for Delhi for Sunday, while drizzle activity is forecast for the city on Monday. (PTI)

India Meteorological Department (IMD) data shows while the Ridge station has received 34.3mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, Lodhi road recorded 28mm, Ayanagar 21.1mm and Palam 12.8mm. With this spell, Safdarjung has so far recorded 153.7mm of rainfall in July – an excess over the normal mark of 108.1mm until July 17. The normal monthly average for July is 210.6mm.

Met officials said that while the monsoon trough had been over central India over the last one week, an active phase of the monsoon is set to return over northwest India, including Delhi-NCR over the next five days. “The trough was passing through central India earlier and this was why Gujarat was receiving so much rain. A shift of the monsoon trough towards the north is again likely to bring northwest India into an active phase and light to moderate rainfall could be seen in the next three to five days,” an official said.

Prior to Saturday and the early hours of Sunday, Delhi had only been receiving isolated drizzle activity, with some parts receiving moderate spells. So far this year, Delhi has only recorded one ‘heavy’ rainfall spell at Safdarjung, coming in a 24-hour window between June 30 and July 1, when Delhi recorded 117.2mm.

IMD has forecast light rainfall for the city for Sunday, while drizzle activity is forecast for Monday. Delhi’s maximum is expected to be around the 36-degree mark today, similar to Saturday’s high of 36.5 degrees Celsius.

In terms of air quality, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) dropped down to a reading of 57 (satisfactory) at 10 am on Sunday – an improvement from a reading of 81 at 4 pm on Saturday. Agencies forecast the AQI to remain in the ‘satisfactory’ range due to strong winds and rain expected to continue over the next few days.