Heavy rains lashed the national capital on Wednesday night, providing much-needed relief from a long spell of sultry weather and inundating low-lying areas. The weather department said most parts of the city witnessed rains.
Dark clouds hovered over the national capital during the day, but rains kept the residents waiting until after 8 pm. Earlier, the India Meteorological Department had predicted moderate to heavy rains in the city on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded just 0.2 mm rainfall till 5:30 pm. The maximum temperature settled at 36.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal. Humidity levels shot up to 92 per cent, causing inconvenience to residents.
Mahesh Palwat, an expert at Skymet Weather, a private forecasting agency, said the city had received on patchy rains till now as the axis of monsoon trough kept on oscillating rapidly. The monsoon trough remained south of Delhi mostly. One after another, weather systems continued to develop over central India which pulled the monsoon axis towards north Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, he said.
After more than normal rainfall in July, monsoon precipitation has remained subdued in Delhi in August so far. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, has recorded just 31.1 mm rainfall in August so far against the normal of 109.6 mm, a deficiency of 72 per cent.
Palam and Lodhi Road weather stations have recorded 51 per cent and 77 percent less rains this month. In July, Delhi had gauged 236.9 mm precipitation, which was 12 per cent more than the normal of 210.6 mm.
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