Pleasant weather in Delhi; monsoon likely to arrive around usual date: IMD

Delhiites enjoyed pleasant weather on Monday as maximum temperatures at most places in the city settled below the 35 degrees Celsius-mark.

The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's base station, recorded a maximum temperature of 32.8 degrees Celsius, six notches below normal. It was 30.7 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the lowest so far this month since June 17, 2013.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the maximum temperature at Safdarjung is likely to remain below 35 degrees Celsius for the next three to four days and under 38 degrees Celsius till June 26.

The city may see thundershowers on Tuesday.

Meteorologists said that the southwest monsoon will reach Delhi around its usual date, June 27, and the rain deficit will be compensated for by June end.

Pre-monsoon showers over the last three days have brought down the rain deficit in Delhi to 34 per cent.

The city has gauged 23.8 mm of rain as against the normal of 36.3 mm since June 1, when the monsoon season starts. All of it came in the last four days.

A cyclonic circulation will come up over parts of West Bengal, north Odisha and adjoining Bangladesh in the next two to three days which will change the wind pattern in the Indo-Gangetic plains, said G P Sharma, president (meteorology), Skymet Weather.

"This cyclonic circulation will initiate the typical easterly flow which is crucial for the advance of the monsoon into northwest India. Delhi will get the first monsoon rains around the usual date, if not exactly June 27," he said.

Senior IMD scientist R K Jenamani said the monsoon is progressing normally and there is no forecast of a system which could stall its progress for now.

The IMD on Monday said the monsoon has further advanced into most parts of Madhya Pradesh, entire Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, most parts of Jharkhand and Bihar, and some parts of southeast Uttar Pradesh.

It said on Thursday that the monsoon is likely to cover many parts of northwest India between June 23 and June 29.

Easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal and western disturbances are predicted to bring light or moderate rainfall to the region during this period, it had said.

Last year, the IMD had forecast that the monsoon would arrive in Delhi nearly two weeks before its usual date. However, it reached the capital only on July 13, making it the most delayed in 19 years.

The monsoon had entered a "break" phase and there was virtually no progress from June 20 to July 8.