NEW DELHI: The southwest monsoon is likely to arrive in the national capital around its usual date, June 27. With the pre-monsoon showers in the city already covering some of the monthly rainfall count, the remaining deficit is likely to be met by June-end, weather forecasts said. While the state weather bureau has said that monsoon in Delhi would be around normal, it hasn’t announced a tentative date yet for its arrival.
After a prolonged heat wave, Delhi saw intermittent showers over the past three days, which also brought the maximum temperature down to 30 degrees celsius on Sunday, which was the lowest maximum recorded in June since 2013. Also, it brought down the monthly rainfall deficit to 34%. June so far has received 23.8 mm rainfall so far while the normal count till this time of the month is 36.3 mm.
All the 23.8 mm rainfall that the month has seen so far occurred over the last three days officially, the monsoon season starts from June 1 and ends on September 30. From June 3 to June 15, parts of the city reeled under a punishing heatwave.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the monsoon usually hits Delhi around June 27-29. “Delhi and the northwest region is likely to see a near normal monsoon,” said a senior IMD official.
Last year, the city saw the most delayed monsoon, which missed the June arrival date and commenced only on July 13, making it the most delayed monsoon in 19 years.
Private weather forecasters, however, said that a cyclonic circulation is likely to form over parts of West Bengal, north Odisha and adjoining Bangladesh over the next two to three days which will change the wind pattern across the Indo-Gangetic plains.
“This weather system is likely to bring moisture-laden easterly winds, which are crucial to bring monsoon showers to the northern plains. It seems likely that the monsoon will hit the capital around its arrival date,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of Skymet, a private weather forecaster.