Was it the monsoon or just pre-monsoon showers that lashed a sweltering Delhi Thursday? Just hours after claiming that it was purely pre-monsoon showers, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) changed its opinion by afternoon to announce that the monsoon had finally arrived.
‘Though we had declared the rains as pre-monsoon showers, after analysis we found that the monsoon has reached Delhi,’ IMD director S.C. Bhan told IANS.
‘The weather since this morning has all the features of the monsoon, and we declare that it has arrived,’ said Bhan. The IMD had earlier forecast June 28-29 as the date for the pre-monsoon to arrive and July 2 for the monsoon.
Asked whether it was monsoon or pre-monsoon,B.P. Yadav, IMD director in charge of analysing the monsoon in the capital, said: ‘I don’t have any definite answer to this. It sometime happens that the monsoon arrives without the pre-monsoon.’
June 29 is the date for the monsoon to break in Delhi and the IMD termed this year’s rains as ‘normal as well’.
According to weather office records of the past 100 years, the monsoon has rarely kept its June 29 date with the capital - only on 10 occasions. It arrived quite early once - June 16, 1998 - and was late by almost a month - on July 26, 1987. In 2006, the monsoon arrived in Delhi July 9.
Till Thursday, the capital had received 130 mm of rainfall as against its usual quota of 36 mm, mainly during five days of heavy showers in mid-June. In May, Delhi witnessed over 80 mm of rainfall, five times more than its normal quota, making it the coolest May in the last 12 years.
The temperatures Thursday dipped slightly - thanks to the grey skies and cool breeze. Delhi had received 6.5 mm of rainfall (till afternoon).
‘The skies will remain overcast throughout the day with chances of rain and thundershowers,’ said an IMD official
Posted By Staff Reporter: Gurgaon City News
in Gurgaon News
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