As predicted, Delhi recorded heavy rainfall in almost all its districts and extended to most parts of NCR also. The official representative observatory Safdarjung, registered 88mm of 24hr rainfall, ending 8.30am today morning. Meteorological office observatory at Lodhi Road was a shade behind with 85.5mm. The airport observatory at Palam was a little sparing with 56mm of rainfall in this duration.
Since 2007, Delhi had recorded a maximum of 47.3mm rainfall in 24hr, on 04thOct 2014. Last year, the capital city measured only trace of rainfall in the entire month of October. Even the highest monthly rainfall during October was 72.7mm, recoded in 2013. This year, the city has recoded 94mm of rainfall between 01stOct and 18thOctober. Monthly normal for October stands at 14.3mm.
Practically, after the withdrawal of monsoon, the capital region nearly goes silent and keeps inching towards wintry conditions. Normally, from withdrawal of monsoon onward, till middle of December, the rains remain far and few.
These get revived with the western disturbance making their appearance effectively from 15thDecember and later. Defying the norms, the combination of strong easterly flow with the low pressure area over Madhya Pradesh and passage of weak western disturbance across Jammu & Kashmir, led to heavy rains over Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Delhi.
The weather system is now moving away from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. Very heavy rainfall is likely over these sub divisions in the next 24hr and will become moderate later. Delhi and suburbs will experience mostly light rainfall activity lasting for barely 24hr. The weather conditions will clear up tomorrow onwards and stay good for the next 5-6days. Tentatively, another wet spell is expected after 25thOctober, albeit mild in nature.
With fairly widespread rains over the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand and subsequent clearance, the reversal in the winds will lead to dip in the minimum temperatures. A drop of 2-3 °C is likely over the next couple of days. With moderate breeze and diving temperatures, flavor of chill is very likely over the capital city for rest of the week. As a routine also, the minimum temperatures for Delhi reach about 16-17°C towards the fag end of the month. An early cast of winter for the national capital, with misty morning and gentle breeze is very much on the cards.