Delhi: After season’s max rain, light shower today

NEW DELHI: The capital woke up wet and flooded after strong overnight showers on Saturday. The Safdarjung weather station, Delhi’s base station, recorded 138.8mm of rainfall till 8.30am — the highest rainfall in a single day so far this year. This is also the highest single-day precipitation recorded in August since 2007, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The last time Delhi recorded more rainfall in a single day in August at Safdarjung was on August 2 fourteen years ago, when it logged 166.6mm of precipitation. On Saturday, at least four stations recorded ‘very heavy’ rainfall, including Safdarjung, each entering more than 115.5mm of rainfall in the logbook. The Ridge station received the highest single-day rainfall recorded so far this year at any location in Delhi at 149.2mm.
IMD has forecast light showers for Sunday, with very light rain likely again on Monday before another dry spell between August 24 and August 27. Met officials said while an ‘orange’ alert for moderate and possibly heavy rainfall was issued for Saturday, the monsoon trough moving towards the north led to a dense formation of clouds over Delhi-NCR, bringing intense showers between 2am and 8am.
“While the capital recorded light rain on Friday, most of the rain occurred after midnight, carrying on till 8-9 am,” said a met official.
There was ‘light’ rainfall in the afternoon and ‘light to moderate’ precipitation in the evening in central and north Delhi. Safdarjung added 4.7mm till 5.30pm to the 138.8mm it had received till 8.30 am. “Towards the evening, a cloud belt again passed through northern and central parts of Delhi, leading to rainfall and thunderstorm activity once again,” said a met official.
The Ridge station recorded 149.2mm of rainfall till 8.30am and another 21.9mm till 5.30pm. Lodhi Road, meanwhile, received 149mm in the morning and an additional 4.1mm over the next nine hours. The Sports Complex station in east Delhi was the fourth station to record ‘very heavy’ rainfall in the morning, logging 124.5mm till 8.30am.
IMD claimed it was not abnormal to record a ‘very heavy’ rainfall spell in August, particularly towards the end of the month. Overall, this is the ninth highest single-day spell of showers in the month of August. Recent one-day measures of heavy rainfall include 166.6mm in 2007 and 159.8mm on August 14, 2001. The all-time record for a single day’s rainfall in August is in 1961 when Delhi received 184mm on August 2.
Overall, Delhi’s monsoon is in the ‘normal’ category so far, having received an average rainfall of 478.3mm between June and August 21 against the normal rainfall measure of 417.6mm.