Monsoon finally hits Delhi, North India

The national capital on Thursday experienced its first day of monsoon showers, that not only lures Delhiites to step outside to enjoy the rain, but bring down the temperature too.

The city received 5.5 mm of rain between 8:30 am to 5:30 pm dropping the mercury below the 35 degrees mark. “The monsoon has arrived in several parts of North India and Delhi that received widespread rain since Wednesday,” IMD spokesperson B P Yadav said.

The normal date for south-west monsoon’s arrival in Delhi varies between June 29 to July 1.

While scattered rainfall is likely for Delhi and adjoining areas in the next couple of days, the temperature is likely to dip further in the next two days due to the rain, says the weather agency. The strength of the monsoon current may revive after July 5 to make up for the shortfall.

India, as a whole still is 43 per cent deficient on rainfall. The shortage is the maximum in Central India (63 per cent deficiency) where some of the sub-divisions like Gujarat, Marathwada, Saurashtra and Kutch barely had any rain.

The weathermen said conditions were favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Union Science Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday stated that panic over deficient monsoon was unwanted.