Highlights
- According to the IMD between, October 1-10 the national capital received 128.6mm of rainfall, the highest the national capital has seen since 1956.
- Delhi’s all-time record rainfall for the month of October is 238.2 mm, which was reported in 1954. In 1956, the national capital recorded 236.2 mm of rainfall.
- The city did not receive any rain in October 2020, 2018, and 2017, and logged 47.3 mm of rainfall in October 2019.
The unusually high rains in Delhi last week were the highest in six decades, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
According to the IMD between, October 1-10 the national capital received 128.6mm of rainfall, the highest the national capital has seen since 1956.
Record rains in Delhi in October
There were six days of heavy rains in Delhi between Oct 1-10, including three days of almost non-stop rains resulting in 128.6mm of rains till Tuesday, the fourth highest rainfall ever recorded in the city in the month.
According to the IMD data, Delhi’s all-time record rainfall for the month of October is 238.2 mm, which was reported in 1954. In 1956, the national capital recorded 236.2 mm of rainfall.
This month last year, the national capital received 122.5 mm of rainfall.
The city did not receive any rain in October 2020, 2018, and 2017, and logged 47.3 mm of rainfall in October 2019.
What caused the heavy rains in Delhi
The capital witnessed a late spell of monsoon rains from September 21 to 24 due to an interaction between a cyclonic circulation and a low-pressure system.
The IMD said the interaction of two weather events – a cyclonic circulation moving in from the Bay of Bengal via the Andhra coast and a western disturbance that brought moisture into the region from the Arabian Sea resulted in the current spell of rains in Delhi.
However, the current rains are not monsoon showers, which receded from the city on September 29, after giving 516.9 mm rainfall against a normal of 653.6 mm, the IMD said.
Delhi had a good monsoon in 2022
IMD on September 30 announced that monsoon has withdrawn from Punjab, Chandigarh Delhi, parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
Delhi has received 790 mm of rainfall so far this year, the IMD said.
The capital recorded 31 percent surplus rain in September — 164.5 mm against a normal of 125.1 mm.
It received 286.3 mm of rainfall in July, 37 percent more than normal, but only 24.5 mm of precipitation in June against an average of 74.1 mm.
First fog day of 2022 in Delhi
On Wednesday, Delhi woke up to a thick layer of mist in the morning, lowering visibility to 350 metres in some parts of the capital.
Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 20.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the normal. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 31 degrees Celsius.
Partly cloudy weather is predicted during the day.
An official at the IMD said the heavy mist is a result of a prolonged spell of rain, which increased moisture content in the air.
“Heavy mist reduces visibility for a small period of time but does not cause much inconvenience to commuters. It is not the season of fog yet,” he said.
