Delhi experienced widespread rainfall, with alerts upgraded to red. More rain is expected, keeping temperatures below normal and improving air quality.
Delhi saw widespread showers on Wednesday with light to moderate rainfall recorded in most locations in the city. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has further said that light to very light rain on Thursday and moderate showers on Friday will continue.
The IMD had initially issued an orange alert, which was later upgraded to red for all districts in Delhi, after dark clouds began to cover the sky in the afternoon. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm, Safdarjung, the city’s base station, logged 15.2mm rainfall, while the highest rain was seen in north Delhi’s Ridge — at 59.6mm. This was followed by southwest Delhi’s Ayanagar (54.8mm), Mayur Vihar (38mm), Palam (22mm), Lodhi Road (18.2mm) and Pusa (13mm).
“The monsoon trough was close to Delhi and the presence of ample moisture through easterly winds in the air caused intense rain in the region,” an IMD official said, stating easterly winds will persist, bringing more moisture and rain spells to Delhi in the coming days.
The rain also kept temperatures below normal. The maximum settled at 32.3 degrees Celsius (°C), two notches below the season’s normal and up from Tuesday’s 29.4°C. The minimum was recorded at 22.8°C, three degrees below normal. Relative humidity oscillated between 74% and 100% through the day.
Officials said active monsoon conditions are likely to persist for the next four days. “There is a possibility of very light to light rain or thundershowers with moderate rain between Thursday and Monday,” the IMD official added.
While IMD has not issued any colour-coded warning for the coming days, the daytime temperature is expected to rise slightly and hover between 32°C and 34°C over the next two days.
In just three days of the month, Delhi has logged 72.8mm of rainfall. Normally, Delhi receives 123.5mm in the entire month. Usually, the monsoon withdrawal in Delhi takes place on September 25, with winter ushering in from October as the wind direction changes to northwesterly.
Excess rainfall has been recorded since May, which was the wettest May in Delhi on record with 186.4mm of rainfall, over six times the normal average of 30.7mm. In June, Delhi recorded 107.1mm of monthly rainfall, an excess of 45% over the long-period average (LPA) of 74.1mm. In July, Delhi received 259.3mm of rainfall, which was 24% more than the LPA of 209.7mm. August meanwhile was the wettest in 15 years, with 400.1mm logged – an excess of 72% over the LPA of 233.1mm.
The downpour on Wednesday also kept Delhi’s air in check. The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 57 on Wednesday, compared to 52 a day earlier, placing it in the “satisfactory” category. According to the Air Quality Early Warning System under the union ministry of earth sciences, the AQI is expected to remain in the “satisfactory” range till September 6.
