Delhi braces for early monsoon, expected to arrive Tuesday

New Delhi: Monsoon is expected to hit the national capital on Tuesday, a few days earlier than usual, with the India Meteorological Department placing the national capital under a yellow alert for rain and thunderstorms throughout the day.

IMD has said that weather conditions are favourable for the monsoon to advance into more parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi.

Typically, the southwest monsoon reaches Delhi around June 30.

However, if the primary rain system arrives as predicted on June 24, it would mark the earliest onset in the city since 2013, when monsoon rains hit the capital on June 16.

In comparison, the monsoon reached Delhi on June 28 last year, June 25 in 2023, June 30 in 2022, and July 13 in 2021.

The IMD has forecast a generally cloudy sky over the next few days, with light to moderate rain, thunderstorms and lightning expected.

A yellow alert has been issued for Delhi, which, under the IMD’s colour-coded warning system, indicates the need to “be aware” of potentially impactful weather.

So far this month, Delhi has recorded three rainy days with rainfall above 2.4 mm.

According to observational data, the normal monthly rainfall for June in Delhi is around 43.3 mm.

However, the city has already surpassed that, recording 89 mm of rainfall till date.

In June last year, the capital saw 243.4 mm of rainfall, against the normal of 74.1 mm for the month.

The monsoon hit Delhi on June 28, 2024, bringing intense thunderstorms and heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the early hours of the day.

On that day alone, the city’s primary weather station at Safdarjung recorded 228.1 mm of rain, according to IMD data.