Rain brings some respite, monsoon may hit by Sunday
The first spell of rain in Gurugram, brought relief, waterlogging, traffic jams and nightmares of the 2016 jam as heavy traffic between Subhash Chowk and Vatika Chowk left hundreds stranded on the stretch till late Thursday night.
An overcast sky and light rain in some parts of Delhi-NCR helped bring much awaited respite from the searing heat on Thursday.
The India Meteorological Department has forecast more rain till monsoon hits Delhi over the weekend. “As things stand today, monsoon is expected to hit Delhi around July 7 (Sunday),” said KJ Ramesh, director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD).
On Thursday, the India Meteorological Department’s Safdarjung observatory, which is taken to be a representative of Delhi’s weather, received around 0.4mm rain till 5:30pm. While Palam received around 5.8mm rain, Ayanagar received 17.1 mm rain.
The first spell of rain in Gurugram, brought relief, waterlogging, traffic jams and nightmares of the 2016 jam as heavy traffic between Subhash Chowk and Vatika Chowk left hundreds stranded on the stretch till late Thursday night.
As the police scrambled to clear congestion on the stretch, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials said they were pumping out water, which was expected to recede only by midnight.
IMD has forecast “light to moderate” rain in Delhi for the next three to four days, following which conditions may
become favourable for widespread rains.
“The well marked low pressure area over Madhya Pradesh and southeast Uttar Pradesh is causing rains here. It is helping the monsoon pick-up and advance. There was good rainfall in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the last two days. But rains in Delhi and other parts of northwest India will be light for a few days now. It will pick up around July 8,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the National Weather Forecasting Centre (NWFC) of IMD.
Monsoon is likely to advance to Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir today, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
“Thursday will be the last heatwave day for several places in northwest India. The maximum temperature will drop,” Jenamani added.
From June 1 to July 2, there is a 30% deficiency in monsoon rain compared to long period average (LPA) for the period. In association with the low pressure area, IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places over west Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha; east Madhya Pradesh, Konkan and Goa; central Maharashtra, Marathawada and east Rajasthan.