As mercury recedes, States brace for rainy weather amid IMD’s weak monsoon forecast

With the monsoon’s arrival just around the corner, several states on Friday saw maximum temperatures dip below the 40-degree Celsius mark and braced for a wet spell, even as the IMD indicated a below-normal southwest monsoon rainfall over India in the upcoming season.

The national capital wore a cover of clouds as it recorded a sharp fall in temperatures, with the lowest maximum registered over the past 21 days. The weather forecast for several northern states, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, pointed to likelihood of rain and thunderstorms.  Intense heat refused to ebb in Rajasthan, with mercury settling in the mid-forties.

However, the weather department said thunderstorm and rain activity is expected to increase from Friday in the state. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said monsoon’s onset over Kerala is expected to happen in the next seven days.

It further said the June-September southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall over India is expected to be 90 per cent of the long-period average with a model error of 4 per cent. The long-period average (LPA) of seasonal rainfall over the country as a whole, based on data from 1971 to 2020, is 87 cm.

While the northeast is likely to witness normal rainfall this monsoon season, the remaining parts of the country may see below normal rainfall, the weather office said.

Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology at the IMD, said in a statement, “The southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall over the monsoon core zone consisting of most of the rainfed agriculture areas in the country is most likely to be below normal (less than 94 pc of LPA).”

 In Delhi, the maximum temperature settled at 36.8 degrees Celsius on Friday, the lowest since May 8 when it stood at 36.4 degrees Celsius. During the intervening period, the mercury has steadily climbed, crossing the 45-degree Celsius mark amid prolonged heatwave conditions.

According to the IMD data, temperatures across the national capital dropped sharply over the past 48 hours — by over 9 degrees at some stations.