IMD declares monsoon onset over Delhi

Monsoon made its onset over the national capital, after a delay of six days, with the city recording 25 mm of rainfall till Friday evening.

Normally, the wind system reaches the city on June 29.

Kuldeep Srivastava, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said the department declared the onset of monsoon over Delhi at 8.30 am.

The wind system has covered western Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, east Haryana and the Delhi-NCR region, he said.

Officials said the Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, gauged 25 mm of rainfall till 5.30 pm. As a result of the rains, the humidity levels shot up to 100 per cent.

The weather station at Lodhi Road recorded 27.8 mm of precipitation.

The rains caused the maximum temperature to drop to 34.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal. The minimum temperature stood at 26.9 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal.

The weather office has predicted light to moderate rains on Saturday. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 33 and 25 degrees Celsius, respectively.

On Thursday, the city witnessed its first spell of rains after 16 days.

In June, the national capital recorded just 11.4 mm of rainfall against the 30-year average of around 55 mm, Srivastava said.

Rainfall in July will be marginally lower than the normal. Overall, it will be a normal monsoon. Normally, 60 cm of rain is recorded from June 1 to September 30 in Delhi, he said.

Intermittent light rains are expected till July 10. Heavy showers are likely after that, Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather, a private forecaster, said.