Monsoon reaches Delhi

“The south-west monsoon has hit the capital three days ahead of its normal arrival,” MeT Department Director B P Yadav said. The rain started around 5 am.

The rain guages measured 72 mm of showers in the Narela weather station, 52 mm at Peetampura, 25 mm in the PUSA area, 8 mm at  Najafgarh, 2.4 mm at  Safdurjung and 2 mm in the Delhi University areas.

The Palam weather station registered 1.7 mm of rain,1.4 mm in Lodhi colony station, 1 mm each at Akshardhan and Yamuna Sports Complex stations. The showers brought down the minimum temperature to 25.9 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal and down from Saturday’s 30 degrees Celsius.

Last year, the monsoon had arrived late in the capital. The seasonal rain started only on July 5,  then after a delay of a week. 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. In 2010, Delhi had recorded 772.3 mm of rain compared to the normal rain of 645.7 mm. However, in 2009 the city received deficient rain.

The MeT official said north-west India, including Delhi, is likely to get around 97 per cent of the average rainfall. In Delhi, the heaviest rainfall was recorded at Hindon with  52 mm of rainfall, followed by 38 mm in Meerut, 37 mm at Indrapuram, Rohtak 33 mm, Sonepat 20 mm, Mungespur 15 mm, Noida 13 mm and Gurgaon 10 mm.