Rains bring down mercury in city

No major traffic snarl or waterlogging was reported from the city as there was no heavy rain in the morning hours though the sky was cloudy and it was drizzling.

The rain gauges at the Safdurjung Weather station measured 40.1 mm of rains between 6 PM yesterday and 8:30 AM today. The Palam station measured 34 mm of rains during the same period.

The showers also brought down the minimum temperature to 23.2 degree Celsius, four degrees below normal. This is the first time in the past over one month that the minimum temperature has come below normal levels.

Monsoon finally hit the capital last evening, after missing the normal onset date of June 29. Last year, monsoon reached the city on June 26 while the year before, it was delayed till July five.

The showers yesterday had triggered waterlogging and traffic snarls across the city, exposing chinks in the preparations of the civic bodies and the city government to tackle the problem.

The earliest onset of monsoon over Delhi during the past 30 years was on June 15, 2008 and while the most delayed onset was on July 26, 1987.

During monsoon, the Weatherman says, if the city gets 645.7 mm of rains, it is considered normal for the capital.

However, this June, Delhi received only one-sixth of the rains.