NEW DELHI: Delhi’s September rainfall has breached the 400-mm mark. The enormity of this can be
understood when compared to the 404-mm rainfall received by the city in the entire 2019 monsoon period. At 403mm till Thursday afternoon, it is the highest precipitation in the month since 1944 when the national capital was pounded by 417.3mm showers.
The city received moderate rains on Thursday with the weather office predicting more showers over the weekend. Strong surface winds also sweep through the city during the day. According to the weather office, 12.6mm rainfall was recorded between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Thursday.
“The city will witness generally cloudy sky with light to moderate rain thundershowers on Friday,” an official of India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the weather office had issued an orange alert for Thursday.
The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 24.8 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature settled at 28 degrees Celsius, six notches below the season’s average, the MeT office said. Relative humidity at 8.30am on Thursday was 98 per cent while it stood at 87 per cent at 5.30 PM.
The monsoon this year has already unleashed 1,159.4mm in Delhi till Thursday afternoon, the highest since 1964 and the third-highest ever, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data. Between June 1, when the monsoon season starts, and September 15, the city normally gets 614.3mm of rainfall. The monsoon withdraws from Delhi by September 25.
According to the IMD, the Safdarjung Observatory, which is considered the official marker for the city, has received 1,159.4mm of rainfall this season till Thursday afternoon. It had gauged 1,155.6mm of rainfall in 1975 and 1190.9mm in 1964. The all-time record is 1,420.3mm rainfall in 1933. This is only the third time in the last two decades that the monsoon rainfall in Delhi breached the 1,000mm mark.
