Delhi rains have played hide and seek for far too long with the Delhiites. In fact, this year Southwest Monsoon also reached Delhi on July 13 with the delay of around 16 days. Normal onset date of monsoon over Delhi is June 27. In spite of late-onset, Delhi did not witness any significant rain activity until July 18.
In fact, weather conditions remained cloudy to overcast since yesterday. There were intense weather activities over adjoining parts of Haryana and Rajasthan, but weather of Delhi remained almost dry with light drizzle at few places.
However, it was the last 12 hours or so which saw heavy rains for the national capital. Rains commenced around 3 am and continue around some parts of the city even now. Heavy rains have resulted in waterlogging in many parts of the city and Monday morning bringing in traffic woes over many parts.
Moreover, in the last 24 hours until 8:30 am Palam observatory saw a whopping 99 mm of rains, Safdarjung observed 70 mm of rains, Narela 104 mm, Lodhi Road 62 mm, Ridge 58 mm and Ayanagar 52 mm. Gurugram on the other hand saw a whopping 145 mm of rainfall resulting in waterlogged streets and traffic chaos.
As on July 18, Delhi is a rain deficient by 43%. Total rainfall recorded between June 1 and July 18 is 102.7 mm against the normal of 180.6 mm. However, with the last 24 hours of rain, the deficiency will certainly come down.
Talking about rain records, 70 mm 24 hour rain is the highest since 2015. The record for 24 hour rain for July is 226.2 mm which was recorded on July 21 in 1958.
Currently, the axis of monsoon trough is passing through the Delhi. Therefore, on and off moderate to heavy rainfall is expected to continue over Delhi NCR until tomorrow July 20. Thereafter, the intensity may go down but we do not expect whether to go completely dry. Isolated patchy showers may continue.
Our weather experts believe that Delhi will get its share of rain in the month of July, and July will end in normal rain category covering the deficiency.
