Pre-monsoon showers likely in Delhi from Saturday night, says Met dept

New Delhi: Parts of Delhi are likely start receiving pre-monsoon showers from late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, coupled with dust storms, the India Meteorological Department said

Parts of Delhi are likely start receiving pre-monsoon showers from late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, coupled with dust storms, the India Meteorological Department said.

Commuters make their way during rain as Monsoon hits many parts of the city. (PTI file photo)

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said the showers will intensity over on Sunday.

“From Sunday, we have a forecast of moderate rain across Delhi. Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) will receive intermittent rain for the next three to four days, while temperatures will drop to around 34 degrees Celsius,” said Srivastava.

On Saturday, the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory, which is considered the official marker for the entire city, was 35.8°C, four degrees below normal, while the minimum temperature was 28°C.

At the Palam weather station, the maximum temperature was 38.6 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal, the minimum temperature was 27.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal.

The Met department on Friday said the south-west monsoon will reach Delhi and most of north-west India by June 15, almost a fortnight ahead of schedule, due to a low pressure system building up over the Bay of Bengal.

Scientists attributed the sudden advancement to the formation of a low-pressure system over the northern Bay of Bengal. When a low-pressure area is formed at the onset of monsoon, it creates conditions that conducive for the advancement of monsoon.

IMD said that except for some parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the monsoon is likely to cover all of north-west India by June 15.

HT reported on Friday that the monsoon was racing across the country after arriving two days late in Kerala, and was likely to cover the entire country a fortnight ahead of the usual July 8 date under favourable conditions.

HT last month reported that Delhi since August 2020 has broken a historical weather record every month — either by being hotter, wetter, or colder than usual. This, for example, is likely to be the first June in Delhi to not get a single heat wave day as rain brings down the temperature further.