Light showers, high humidity: Gurugram’s rain deficit for July 29%

GURUGRAM: A few areas in the city witnessed light rain on Monday afternoon for the second consecutive day, keeping the maximum temperature in check. According to the met department, the rainfall activity is likely to remain subdued this week with no alerts being issued for the city for the next five days. However, light to very light rainfall may be witnessed on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the latest forecast.
On Monday, the city's weather station recorded a maximum temperature of 36.3 degrees Celsius, slightly up from 34.5 degrees Celsius on the previous day.
The minimum temperature, however, saw a dip by two degrees from Sunday’s 28.5 degrees Celsius to 26 degrees Celsius. The relative humidity remained high, with the index oscillating between 83% and 85% throughout the day.
According to the IMD observation, the city had only recorded trace rainfall till Monday evening. The data from the administration stated that Farrukhnagar received 14 mm rainfall, Wazirabad (1mm), Badshapur (5mm) and Pataudi (3mm).
“The chances of rain on Tuesday are less but patchy showers may be witnessed in Gurgaon. Rainfall activity will increase on Wednesday and Thursday in the state. There is a possibility of heavy rain in the northern parts of Haryana on July 13 and 14,” said Manmohan Singh, director, IMD Chandigarh.
So far, in the month of July, Gurgaon has seen deficient rainfall of 29% with 38.8 mm as compared to normal of 54.5 mm. Light rain for the past two days has had a positive effect on the air quality index (AQI) as it improved from moderate category on Sunday to satisfactory level on Monday. The overall AQI reading was recorded at 100. Last time the city had a satisfactory air day was on July 3 when the AQI stood at 72.
On a day when the weatherman said rain was unlikely in the capital, it rained in Delhi on Monday. In its seven-day forecast, the Met department forecast at 12.35pm on Monday a ‘generally cloudy sky’. This was revised to ‘very light rain or drizzle’ in an hour and then updated at 2.35pm to light rain. Contrary to expectations, however, there was ‘very light’ to ‘heavy’ precipitation in parts of Delhi later in the afternoon.
India Meteorological Department’s data shows that Pitampura in north-west Delhi had a ‘heavy’ rainfall of 77.5mm between 8.30am and 5.30pm. Both Ridge in north Delhi and Delhi University recorded 11.4mm of precipitation, while Pusa received 25mm. Najafgarh logged 4mm, while Safdarjung, which is the city’s base station, and Lodhi Road received 1mm each. Palam reported just ‘trace’ rainfall.
Met officials claimed that it is difficult to issue an advance localised alert about rain caused by convective clouds, which are formed quickly due to warm air rising and cooling down to form clouds.