Yellow alert issued in Delhi for Wed, early morning showers expected

Though no colour-coded alerts are in place from Thursday onwards, very light scattered showers are expected in the city till Sunday, it said.

The city is likely to witness showers in the early hours of Wednesday, as a yellow alert for light to moderate rain in the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.

A view of clear sky over Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Rain eluded most of the city on Tuesday, with only a spell of light rain recorded in northwest Delhi’s Mungeshpur. With the monsoon trough remaining close to Delhi-NCR and a western disturbance influencing northwest India, there are chances of scattered light to moderate overnight showers across Delhi-NCR, officials said.

“We have mostly been seeing overnight activity. There are chances of some rain in the early hours of Wednesday and similar spells may occur towards Wednesday night,” said an IMD official.

Though no colour-coded alerts are in place from Thursday onwards, very light scattered showers are expected in the city till Sunday, it said.

Base weather station Safdarjung recorded 0.5mm in rainfall in the 24 hours till 8.30am on Tuesday. It failed to record any rain during the day. The only station to receive rain was Mungeshpur, where 2mm was recorded till 5.30pm, data showed.

The monsoon covered Delhi and the rest of the country on June 29 this year. While the onset was two days late for Delhi, it was nine days early for the rest of the country. The onset came with 14mm rain in the 24 hours till 8.30am on June 30. However, monsoon showers have mostly been subdued and scattered since then in the Capital.

So far, Delhi has logged 18.2mm in monthly rainfall, as opposed to a normal of 41.7mm till July 8. Normally, Delhi sees 209.7mm in the entire month. Last year, 203.7mm rain was recorded in July.

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature stood at 37°C, which was around normal. The minimum stood at 27.2°C, a degree below normal. A drop in temperature is likely on Wednesday, with the maximum expected to hover between 33-35°C and the minimum between 24-26°C, IMD has said.

The air quality remained “satisfactory” for a 13th straight day. The average air quality index (AQI) stood at 98 (satisfactory) at 4pm, marginally up from a reading of 85 on Monday.