Many parts of Delhi woke up to light showers on Monday morning, with some areas also experiencing thunderstorms. The Indian Meteorological Department first issued a yellow alert for most of the southern half of the city at around 7:00 am, which was later updated to a red alert for most of the city at around 8:20 am.
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At around 8:20 am, the IMD said in a statement that “A fresh intense convective cloudmass moving southeastwards across Rohtak is likely to affect most places of Delhi with very light/light rain and thunderstorm/lightning/strong winds 60-70kmph gusting to 80kmph after an hour.”
The red alert was issued for the north, northwest, northeast, central, east, and parts of southeast, west, and New Delhi, along with all of Shahadara. An orange alert was also issued for most of southwest and south Delhi, and the southern parts of New Delhi.
According to the IMD’s data, the highest amount of rainfall recorded on Monday morning was at Palam, which received 1.3mm of rainfall from 5:30 am to 8:30 am, followed by Chattarpur, which received 1mm, and Pitampura and Pusa, which both received 0.5mm of rainfall during the same period.
Ayanagar also received 0.6mm of rainfall from 5:30pm on Sunday, to 8:30 am on Monday, while Lodi Road only received trace amounts of rainfall in the same period. No other weather station recorded rainfall till 8:30 am on Monday.
The IMD also stated at around 8:20 am that light rainfall with light thunderstorm is expected to occur at Bawana, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Safdarjung, Lodi Road, Buddha Jayanti Park, President House, Rajeev Chowk, ITO, Kalkaji, and Tughlakabad in Delhi, and at Rohtak, Kharkhoda, and Palwal in Haryana, within the next two hours.
The city is expected to receive further rain today, with the IMD’s forecast for the week, issued at 8:30 pm on Sunday, predicting a spell of very light to light rain along with thunderstorms and lightning towards the afternoon or evening.
The IMD had also stated that thunderstorms might occur on Tuesday afternoon/evening too, and that the city would experience further rain on Saturday.
Despite the rain, the city’s maximum temperature is expected to rise, and is likely to reach 42°C to 44°C by Saturday. The maximum is expected to be between 38°C and 40°C today. The minimum, which was recorded at 28.2°C today, is expected to follow a similar rise over the coming week, and reach 30°C to 32°C by Saturday.
If the rain continues, the city may see an improvement in air quality. The city’s AQI was recorded at 135 at 9:00am on Monday.
