Stage set for monsoon to arrive in Delhi, expect rains every day from next week

A couple of ‘western disturbances’ — storms from West Asia — would not just trigger rain and thundershowers almost on all the days next week but could also drag the monsoon nearer to Delhi, officials of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.

With monsoon round the corner and rain expected almost every day starting June 19, Delhiites can get to enjoy a ‘spring-like weather’ in the coming days, Met officials predicted.

“A couple of western disturbances are coming. As a result, rain and thundershowers are expected to lash the city almost every day next week. This would help to bring down the day temperature to around 30 degrees Celsius by Wednesday,” said a senior official of the regional weather forecasting centre.

Usually the city enjoys such cooler temperature till March after which the mercury starts shooting up. It reaches the peak in May and June.

“While the normal temperature (an average of three decades) of March in Delhi is 29.6 degrees Celsius, it shoots up to 36.3 in April. The climatic normal of maximum temperature, in the peak summer months of May and June, hovers around 39 degrees Celsius,” said an official.

Met officials also hope that once the western disturbances arrive, they would induce favourable conditions for the monsoon to advance further towards Delhi. The usual date of arrival of the monsoon in Delhi is June 29.

On Friday the south west monsoon managed to cover almost half of Maharashtra, almost entire Odisha and West Bengal and had touched Bihar and Jharkhand.

Sometimes the monsoon current is strong enough and advances on its own. But at times it needs some push to advance over the Indian landmass. Certain atmospheric conditions such as a cyclonic circulation, a low pressure or a depression in the sea, provides this push.

“We are hopeful that the western disturbances arriving early next week and the prevailing cyclonic circulations over north-west India would pave the way for the monsoon to advance further towards Delhi,” said a met official.

Met officials said that by next week, the picture would become clearer as to when monsoon could hit Delhi.

“It is just like driving a car on a road. Sometimes you get stuck in a traffic snarl and sometimes when you get a clear road you press the accelerator hard to make up for the loss. The monsoon getting delayed in some parts of south or eastern India doesn’t mean that Delhi would get a delayed monsoon,” said an official.