Delhi weather: Moderate rainfall likely for 3 days, says IMD

With the monsoon trough remaining near its normal position, widespread rainfall is on the forecast for parts of northwest India over the next five days, according to an IMD bulletin issued early on Thursday. Widespread rainfall with thunderstorms or lightning is likely over Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Eastern Rajasthan over the next five days, the bulletin read. The monsoon trough, which is a low-pressure area associated with the monsoon, runs through Ganganagar, Hisar, Aligarh, Varanasi and Jamshedpur.

Moderate rainfall remains on the forecast for Delhi on Friday and Saturday, and light rainfall is likely to persist till Monday. Next week, August 9 and 10 are set to remain dry, going by the IMD’s seven-day forecast.

In a spell of light rainfall on Wednesday, the Safdarjung weather observatory, which provides a marker for the city, recorded around 7 mm of rainfall. Safdarjung has recorded 7.8 mm of rainfall so far this month, which is around 77% short of the normal of 33.2 mm till August 4. In contrast, the Palam weather observatory has recorded nearly no rainfall this month, recording a 100% deficit so far this August.

The maximum temperature on Thursday is likely to be 33 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature over the past 24 hours was 26.8 degrees Celsius, close to the normal for this time of the year, while the maximum temperature on Wednesday was 34.6 degrees Celsius. At 8.30 am on Thursday, the temperature was 28 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity was 87%.

After having remained in the ‘satisfactory’ category from July 23 onwards, the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi deteriorated slightly to be in the ‘moderate’ category on Wednesday. The AQI on Wednesday was 122 with PM10 and ozone as the main pollutants. The AQI is likely to be in the ‘moderate’ to ‘satisfactory’ categories on Thursday and Friday as well, according to the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi.