NEW DELHI: The break in monsoon in Delhi and adjoining areas is likely to continue till August 18 and rainfall in the last 10 days of the month will likely cover the precipitation deficit in the capital, according to weather forecasters.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the national capital, has recorded a meager 63.2mm rainfall in August so far against the normal of 123.1 mm a shortfall of 49 per cent according to the India Meteorological Department.
Normally, the capital gauges 247.7mm rainfall in August. The IMD had earlier predicted normal rainfall for Delhi this month. The ‘break monsoon’ phase, the second this season, started on August 10 and is likely to continue till August 18, said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet Weather.
“The ‘break monsoon’ phase got extended in the absence of any favourable weather system which would have pulled the monsoon trough from the foothills of the Himalayas towards the plains. “However, a low-pressure system is developing in the Bay of Bengal.
It will travel in the west direction to south Madhya Pradesh and pull the monsoon trough, leading to rains in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and western UP from August 19,” Palawat said. He said ‘good rainfall’ in the last 10 days of August is expected to cover the deficit.