Monsoon

The IMD had last year announced the new normal dates for arrival and withdrawal of monsoon for various stations across India. Accordingly, September 17 is the date when the withdrawal is to commence from northwest India.

Against the normal rainfall of 258 mm, the observed rainfall in August was just 195.9 mm, a departure of whopping 24 per cent from the long period average, India Meteorological Department Director General, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, told a press conference. The IMD calculates the long period average (LPA) based on the data for years between 1961 and 2010.

For the next one week as per prediction for the national capital, the Met department data indicates clear sky and strong surface wind with 20-30 km kmph, which means people of Delhi will have to witness scorching heat of summer during the day and humidity in the night. According to the Met department, there would be partly cloudy sky from August 12 to August 15

Monthly rainfall for August is most likely to be normal -- 94 to 106 per cent of Long Period Average (LPA), India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mahapatra said. He was addressing a virtual press conference to declare southwest monsoon rainfall forecast for the second half of the season and for August. The LPA of the August to September period rainfall over the country as a whole for 1961-2010 is 428.3 mm.

Delhi-NCR and several parts of northwest India received good rains with central Delhi receiving 72 mm (Safdarjung) and Lodi Road (73.4 mm rainfall just between 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, IMD data showed. Ridge (49.3 mm) and Aya Nagar (34.8 mm) in south Delhi too received large quantum of rainfall, throwing Delhi's traffic out of gear during evening peak hours with large parts waterlogged.

As many as 434,185 people have been evacuated and relocated to safer areas after their homes were submerged or badly damaged in the flood waters, which reached up to 20 feet high in some areas, with 1,351 villages directly affected by the rain fury. The largest evacuation took place from western Maharashtra districts, followed by Konkan districts.

The meteorological department has predicted thunderstorms with light to moderate intensity rain over many places in the national capital along with Gurugram, Manesar, Panipat (Haryana) and adjoining areas during the next 2 hours. Rains resulted in waterlogging which caused long traffic snarls in many areas of Delhi. "Traffic was affected in front of WHO Building near IP flyover due to water logging," said a traffic police.

It has also predicted heavy rainfall at isolated places over Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Gujarat, central Maharashtra, Konkan, Goa, coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Mahe for Monday. Thunderstorm, accompanied by lightning, is very likely at isolated places over Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim and many others.

"Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with heavy rainfall is expected at isolated places likely over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and northwest Madhya Pradesh during next 24 hours and further decrease in rainfall intensity and spread over Northwest India thereafter," IMD said. Delhi-NCR has been receiving heavy rainfall for the past two days.

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), intense convection over several parts of North, North West as well as East and North East India is responsible for heavy rainfall in these areas. As per the IMD, the heaviest rainfall was seen in Palam, which received 95.2 mm of rain between 8.30 p.m. on Sunday and 8.30 a.m. on Monday.