Thunderstorm followed by light rain in few pockets of Delhi/NCR came as a sigh of relief after a hot and muggy afternoon on Wednesday. High temperature and available moisture in the air resulted in thunderstorm in the evening. Till 8.30 pm, the Safdarjung Observatory recorded 3.6 mm while Palam received 2 mm of rain.
After witnessing a constant rise in maximum from 40.6°C on Sunday to 43.3°C on Tuesday, the day temperature came down once again to 41.2°C yesterday. Temperature will not rise significantly immediately as temperatures have come down in Rajasthan as well and the winds coming from the west direction are less hot than those experienced last week when temperatures had risen to mid-forties and above.
According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, there are chances of thunderstorm and isolated light rain in Delhi/NCR on Thursday. In fact the wait for Monsoon will reach the climax by next week as scattered showers with few good spells are likely to commence from the 21st onward due to a trough along the foothills of the Himalayas from northwest plains to north Bay of Bengal across east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. This spell will lead to Monsoon showers much before the end of this month.
Reason for sultry weather in Delhi
Around 5 am on Thursday morning, humidity was as high as 70% but with the change in wind pattern from south easterly to north westerly, humidity came down to 47% in the afternoon. A trough of low pressure, running from central Pakistan to Gangetic West Bengal across Haryana, east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is responsible for this high humidity. The north-south oscillation of this trough keeps on changing the wind pattern from westerly in the day time to easterly during late evening to early morning hours.
The moisture still persists in the air and only a persistent flow of dry westerly winds for 2-3 days could reduce the chances of high humidity returning back to the national capital. This scenario seems unlikely now as Southwest Monsoon is quickly progressing to Central and east India therefore, the pattern of winds are shifting from north westerly to south easterly.
picture courtesy- R.V. Moorthy
