Delhi registers wettest May ever on record; thunderstorm disrupts life

With a thunderstorm battering the city in the early hours of Sunday and dumping 81.4 mm of rain in just a few hours, Delhi recorded its wettest May since record-keeping began in 1901, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

 

The month's cumulative rainfall has now touched 186.4 mm, surpassing the previous all-time record of 165 mm set in May 2008.

The storm, which struck around 2 am, brought gusty winds peaking at 82 kmph, leading to widespread waterlogging, uprooted trees, and major disruptions at the airport. 

Delhi's Sunday rainfall alone -- classified as "heavy" by IMD standards -- also made it the city's second-highest 24-hour May rainfall ever recorded, after the 119.3 mm logged on May 20, 2021. Temperatures nose-dived overnight, with the mercury plunging 10 degrees at Safdarjung - ?from 31 to 21 degrees Celsius within 75 minutes. 

The weather office said the unusually intense storm was the result of the interaction between moist southeasterly winds and dry westerlies, further intensified by three active weather systems: a western disturbance over north Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and two upper air cyclonic circulations - one over northwest Uttar Pradesh and north Haryana, and another over west Rajasthan.

The city had earlier seen 77 mm of rain on May 2, according to the data. 

Though no colour-coded alert has been issued for the coming days, the IMD has forecast intermittent light rain and thunderstorms with winds up to 50 kmph to persist through the week. 

Sunday's maximum temperature settled at a cool 31.6 degrees Celsius, nine notches below normal, while the minimum was 19.8 degrees Celsius C, seven degrees below the May average.

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