Southwest monsoon withdraws from Delhi: IMD

NEW DELHI, (PTI): The southwest monsoon — which gave highly uneven rainfall this year — has withdrawn from Delhi. The monsoon had rolled into Delhi on June 30 yielding the season’s first spell of heavy rain (117.2 mm).

The normal date of arrival is June 27 and that of withdrawal is September 25.

Weather experts say a gap of three to five days is considered normal.

”The southwest monsoon has withdrawn from Punjab; some parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan and entire Delhi,” India Meteorological Department said.

The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, recorded an overall deficit of 19 per cent this monsoon season — 516.9 mm of rainfall against a normal of 653.6 mm. Also, the capital gauged less than half of the precipitation received last year (1169.4 mm).

Up to 19 per cent of deficient and excess rain is considered ‘normal’, according to the IMD.

Delhi stared at a much larger rain deficit till September 20. However, a late spell of incessant rains from September 21 to September 24 — due to an interaction between a cyclonic circulation and a low-pressure system — helped it cover the margin to a large extent. The rainfall recorded at the Safdarjung Observatory swung from a 49 per cent deficit on September 21 to a surplus of 39 per cent on September 24.

Delhi’s overall rain deficit in the monsoon season dropped from 35 per cent (till September 22) to 19 per cent by September 29 morning. The capital recorded 31 percent surplus rain in September –164.5mm against a normal of 125.1 mm — and a deficit of 82 per cent in August, which is usually the wettest month of the season.
July saw 37 percent surplus rainfall and June logged a shortage of 67 per cent. New Delhi, Northeast Delhi, Northwest Delhi and West Delhi recorded a rain deficit of 21 per cent, 55 per cent, 20 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively.

East Delhi saw 30 per cent excess rainfall.

Delhi received 636 mm, 544 mm, 876 mm, 370.8 mm and 505.5 mm during the monsoon season in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

It recorded 524.7 mm of rainfall in 2016, 641.3 mm in 2017, 762.6 mm in 2018, 404.3 mm in 2019, and 576.5 mm in 2020, according to the IMD data.

The rainfall last year (1169.4 mm) was the highest since 1964 (1,190.9 mm) and the third highest since the IMD started keeping records in 1901. (PTI)

The all-time record is 1,420.3 mm rainfall in 1933.