Light Rain In Parts Of Delhi, Temperature Settles At 37.4 Degrees Celsius

A dust storm and light rain swept several parts of Delhi on Sunday, bringing the mercury two notches below the season's average to 37.4 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department said.

Delhiites woke up to a pleasant Sunday morning with the minimum temperature settling at 21.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal, it said.

The relative humidity oscillated between 37 and 82 per cent, the weather office said.

The observatory at Palam recorded trace rain between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm.

For Monday, the India Meteorological Department has forecast partly cloudy skies with strong surface winds reaching speeds of 30-40 kilometres an hour. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 38 and 23 degrees Celsius, respectively.

On Saturday, the minimum temperature in Delhi settled at 21 degrees Celsius and the maximum at 35.1 degrees.

Delhi has received over 200 per cent excess rainfall in the pre-monsoon period -- March 1 to May 31 -- so far due to back-to-back western disturbances in the last two weeks.

The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, has recorded 221 per cent more precipitation -- 119 mm against a normal of 37.1 mm -- during this time.

Normally, it logs 48 mm of rainfall during the entire pre-monsoon period.

The manual weather station at Palam has recorded 109.9 mm rainfall against a normal of 33 mm. The rainfall recorded at Lodhi Road (119.5 mm), Ridge (114.2 mm) and Ayanagar (113.4 mm) is at least 220 per cent above normal.

Delhi has been experiencing cloudy weather and sporadic rainfall for the last 15 days, a rarity during this time of the year. May has historically been the hottest month for Delhi with a mean maximum temperature of 39.5 degrees Celsius.

Officials attributed this to back-to-back western disturbances, weather systems that originate in the Mediterranean region and bring unseasonal rainfall to northwest India.

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