Delhi suffers intense squalls, yellow alert in place till Wednesday
IMD forecast a wet week ahead, and issued a yellow alert for light to moderate rainfall and gusty winds of up to 60km/hr speed till Wednesday. It also said there were chances of light rain and isolated thunderstorms between Thursday and Saturday, but did not issue a colour-coded alert
An intense thunderstorm rocked the Capital on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, bringing along with it light to moderate rainfall and gusty winds of 104km/hr—the highest this season and second-highest since 2018—according to India Meteorological Department (IMD). The weather events caused power outages and led to multiple trees being uprooted.
IMD forecast a wet week ahead, and issued a yellow alert for light to moderate rainfall and gusty winds of up to 60km/hr speed till Wednesday. It also said there were chances of light rain and isolated thunderstorms between Thursday and Saturday, but did not issue a colour-coded alert.
“During this intense spell, light to moderate rainfall was recorded, with Safdarjung also recording hail on Sunday. Across the city, strong winds between 50 and 100 km/hr were recorded and visibility dipped from 4,000 metres at 2am to around 1,500 metres at 3am due to dust upliftment,” an IMD official said, adding there was also a dip in temperature from around 35°C at 2.30 am to 27°C by 4.30am.
A minimum temperature of 20°C was recorded, which was eight degrees below normal and lowest for June since 17.6°C was recorded on June 1, 2021.
According to IMD, Delhi’s base weather station at Safdarjung recorded a spell of thundersquall from 3.48-3.50am, when maximum wind speed touched 84km/hr, and another spell from 3.58-4am, when wind speed touched 104km/hr. Before this, the highest wind speed this season was 96km/hr, recorded on June 1.
During the two spells, rainfall of 42mm was recorded at Safdarjung, 15.3mm at Palam, 44.2mm at Lodhi Road, 8mm at Ridge, 7.8mm at Ayanagar, 16.1mm at Rajghat and 29mm at Pusa. No rain was recorded for the remainder of the day.
With this spell, Delhi has already recorded 58.8mm of monthly rainfall, against the normal long-period average (LPA) of 74.1mm for June. Typically, the monsoon reaches Delhi by June 27.
“While there was fresh development before the afternoon, the storm dissipated in Haryana and thus, did not reach Delhi. Otherwise, we would have seen more rain. We expect similar thunderstorm activity to continue till at least Wednesday,” the IMD official said.
While the storm led to a dip in temperatures, humidity continued to remain high. The temperature was 33.6°C at 2.30pm, but relative humidity of 65% gave Delhi a “real feel” or heat index (HI) of 43.2°C. The wet-bulb temperature stood at 28.1°C. A wet bulb reading above 32°C or high can significantly impair the human body’s ability to cool itself, while 35°C is considered the theoretical limit for survivability.
On Sunday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 35.6°C, three degrees below normal and lower than 41.8°C recorded a day earlier. The IMD forecasted a maximum temperature of 35°C to 37°C and a minimum of 22-24°C for Monday.
