Where is the rain? Delhi in ‘sauna-like condition’ after arrival of monsoon

The rains, which had been lashing Delhi till Sunday, have suddenly disappeared after monsoon hit the city. Met officials, however, are hopeful that Delhi could witness another spell of widespread shower only after July 10.

The city experienced the wettest June in more than a decade this year, as heavy pre-monsoon showers continued to batter the city till Sunday. But the rains almost stopped after the monsoon arrived on Sunday. The city hardly received any rain since then.

Experts said even though the easterly and south-easterly winds are bringing in loads of moisture, there is hardly any strong atmospheric system to churn out rain from the clouds.

“The sky is covered with clouds every day. There is moisture. But there is no system to trigger rain from these clouds. It is like possessing a loaded gun without a trigger or a hammer. You might have the gun, but you can’t shoot,” explained a senior met official.

Usually in the winter and summer season (also called the pre-monsoon season) the western disturbances – storms originating over West Asia trigger rain in Delhi-NCR. But with the arrival of the monsoon, winds originating in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, start gushing in and brings the moisture.

Read: When monsoon was a festival in Delhi

“But this is not enough. We need some system such as a cyclonic circulation, a trough or a low pressure area to trigger rain from these clouds. Only then we would get heavy widespread rain. Else there would be some rain in isolated places,” said an official of the national weather forecasting centre.

On Wednesday while Safdarjung received just 1.0mm of rain, Palam remained totally dry.

The result: While Delhiites were reeling under ‘frying pan’ like conditions with high temperature and dry conditions in summer, now they are experiencing ‘sauna like conditions’. Even though the temperature is in the normal range, high relative humidity has made the weather muggy and sweaty.

“It is because even though the temperature has not shop up, the relative humidity has increased. This in turn has forced the Heat Index to shoot up,” said a weather official.

Heat Index is calculated taking into consideration both the temperature and the humidity levels. Hence it gives a better measure of how hot or cold it really feels instead of measuring the temperature alone. The higher the heat index, the hotter we feel.

On Tuesday even though the temperature was 36.5 degrees Celsius, the relative humidity shot up to 87%.

But weather officials have spotted some developments which they hope could bring some rain next week.

“The city could receive a light rain on July 6. But a system might develop after that and if it matures, the city could enjoy another spell of widespread rain from July 10. It is, however, too early to predict for certain at the moment,” said the official.