Delhi receives second-highest annual rainfall in 121 yrs with 1,534 mm of rain

This year, Delhi has received its second-highest annual rainfall in 121 years, stated the Safdarjung Airport Observatory. 

According to the observatory, as of October 25,  Delhi has received 1,502.8 rainfall till Monday evening. Meanwhile, the national capital in 1933 had recorded 1,534.3 mm rainfall, which is the highest annual precipitation in the 1901-2021 period, according to the data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

In 121 years, this is only the fourth time -- after 1933, 1964, and 1975 -- that Delhi has received more than 1,200 mm of rainfall.

Delhi received 87.9 mm of 24-hour accumulated rainfall till October 18, which is the highest since 1956. 

The national capital has been receiving an excess of rainfall in the month of September and October, the period that usually witnesses the departure of the southwest monsoon. 

The rainfall Delhi received this year is the third time in the last two decades that it was more 1,000 mm mark as the city had recorded 1,031.5 mm rainfall in 2010 and 1050 mm in 2003. 

Amidst heavy rainfall, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the Delhi-NCR region also came up to the satisfactory category on Monday evening as it improved from 160 on Sunday to 82 on Monday, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data said.