Delhi to remain dry this week, mercury on rise

Even as the Met has declared the arrival of monsoon here, the national capital and surrounding regions will remain dry with only drizzles in isolated areas till Saturday.

The mercury is set to rise through the week and maximum temperatures may hover around 41 to 42 degrees Celsius by the end of this week, officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

According to the private weather forecasting agency Skymet, the National Capital Region (NCR) will see good rainfall from July 9.

"There are hardly any chances of good rains in Delhi till at least July 7. The NCR will remain mostly dry and temperatures will rise," Kuldeep Srivastava, senior scientist at IMD, told IANS.

He, however, added that over the next two days, some parts of Delhi may see drizzles.

"There had been deficiency of rains in June in Delhi but as monsoon rains are expected to catch up by mid-July, the overall rainfall would be balanced," Srivastava added.

Earlier, the weather agencies had predicted the arrival of monsoon and good rainfall in the national capital between June 28 and July 1. The scenario changed due to the meteorological reasons.

"The axis of monsoon trough have shifted to the foothills of Himalayas, so the entire north-west plains will remain dry till at least July 7 to 8. The rainfall will return to Delhi around July 9 to 10," Mahesh Palawat, Director of Skymet, told IANS.

He added that while north-western plains will remain dry this week, good rainfall was expected in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

"During the next 24 hours foothills of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and eastern parts of Uttarakhand would observe active to vigorous monsoon conditions that could give moderate to heavy rains, with one or two very heavy spells," Skymet said.

Monsoon will remain active over Konkan, Goa and Coastal Karnataka that would see moderate to heavy showers.

So far in June (till June 27), Delhi saw 24 mm rainfall (pre monsoon activity) which is 49 per cent deficient as the normal rains should have been around 47.5mm, according to IMD.

For the country as a whole, 7 per cent deficiency in the overall rainfall has been registered from June 1 to July 1, according to Skymet.

"Division-wise, South and Northwest India are surplus by 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. East, Northeast saw 26 per cent deficiency and Central India remained deficit by 6 per cent," Skymet said.

--IANS

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