NEW DELHI: After a brief hiatus which again brought back heat and humidity, Delhi is likely to see light rain over the next two days while the city may get more intense spells from July 28-30, weather officials said.
The IMD, around 8.40 pm on Monday evening, issued alerts predicting moderate to heavy intensity rain with gusty winds of 30-50kmph to occur over and adjoining areas of many parts of Delhi including Mundka, Punjabi Bagh, Najafgarh, Safdarjung, Lodhi Road, Nehru Stadium, IGI Airport and Aya Nagar, among others over the next two hours. However, another alert at 9.42 pm from the weather department said that the forecast of rain for Delhi and adjoining areas has been “withdrawn”.
However, the IMD maintained the forecast for neighbouring cities for light intensity intermittent rain/drizzle would occur over and adjoining areas of Narnaul (Haryana) Bahajoi, Tundla (UP) Pilani, Kotputli (Rajasthan) over the next two hours. “The alert was withdrawn because the axis of the monsoon trough, which had come close to Delhi, shifted further to Rajasthan and other parts of northern India where it is raining. There are only two systems – monsoon trough being close to the city or a strong weather disturbance – which induce rain. The trough is likely to shift back to north and close to Delhi-NCR around July 28 when moderate to heavy spells are likely across the city,” said a senior IMD scientist.
Delhi saw a good spell of rain last Wednesday (52.4mm) followed by light rain over the next two days, which also brought the mercury down and provided much-needed relief from the rising temperatures and high humidity levels. However, the weekend was dry and even on Monday the city despite the forecast didn’t get any rain except for traces, which brought the heat and high temperatures back.
On Monday, the maximum temperature was 35.2 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average while minimum settled at 26.8 degrees C, which is normal for this time of the year. As per IMD data, this July, Delhi has so far (till July 25) received a total of 230.5 mm rain against the normal count (by this time of the month) of 166.4 mm rain and has surplus rain of 39%. Officials said that the normal rainfall count for July is 210.6 mm and with five days still left for the month to end with an intense spell expected around that time, July is to end in surplus.