Delhi may get relief from heatwave, IMD issues orange alert for June 11

After strong winds and a spell of rain lashed parts of the capital on Tuesday evening, the IMD has issued an orange alert for thunderstorms and squalls starting today evening

Strong winds, intense lightning and spells of rain swept across Delhi-NCR on Tuesday evening, bringing little respite from soaring temperatures and heatwave conditions.

 

Palam recorded the highest gusty wind speed of 111 kilometres per hour during the evening hours, while the Pusa area reported maximum winds of 48 kilometres per hour.

 

The sudden change in weather came amid persistent heatwave conditions prevailing across the Delhi-NCR region over the past few days.

 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a partly cloudy sky on Wednesday with the possibility of thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places for the national capital. However, the maximum temperature is expected to settle at around 44 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature may hover around 30 degrees Celsius.

 

 

The Met Department stated that maximum temperatures across North India are likely to rise by 2-4 degrees Celsius until June 11, before witnessing a gradual decline of 3-5 degrees Celsius thereafter. 

Delhi likely to get relief from heat

Despite the possibility of thunderstorm development, Delhi is expected to remain hot on Wednesday, with the maximum temperature likely to hover around 44 degrees Celsius and the minimum around 30 degrees Celsius.

 

However, the Met Department has issued an orange alert for rain accompanied by thunderstorms, lighting and gusty winds on Thursday, followed by gradual fall in temperature by 3-5 degrees Celsius.  

Monsoon advances further

While north India remains under the grip of heat, the southwest monsoon has advanced further into the country.

 

The IMD said the monsoon has covered the remaining parts of the northeastern states, the entire Sikkim region and parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal. Conditions remain favourable for its further advance into parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and central India over the next few days. 

Heavy rain in southern India and the Northeast

Fairly widespread rainfall activity is expected to continue over the Northeast, with very heavy rainfall likely over parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

 

Southern India is also likely to witness active monsoon conditions as heavy rainfall has been forecast over Kerala, Coastal Karnataka, South Interior Karnataka, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu, while isolated very heavy rainfall is likely to occur over Kerala and Karnataka.