Monsoon finally arrives in Delhi; heavy rain in many parts
What's the story
Monsoon finally arrived in Delhi today after a long delay and several faulty alerts. Rainfall started in the national capital on Monday night and continued through Tuesday morning. The neighboring cities of Gurugram and Faridabad also received rainfall. The weather department has predicted thunderstorm and moderate intensity rainfall in and around Delhi, and several parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
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Rain predicted over NCR, parts of Haryana, UP
By 8:30 am today, the Lodhi Road Met station had seen 19.4 mm of rain, followed by 2.5 mm at Safdarjung, and 2.4 mm at Palam. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) tweeted there would be thunderstorm and moderate intensity rain over Delhi-NCR, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra. In UP, Deoband, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baraut, Bagpat, Khekra, Khatauli, Modinagar, Khurja, and Meerut will receive rainfall.
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Most delayed monsoon in nearly 2 decades
The annual expected date for the arrival of Monsoon in Delhi is June 27. This is the first time in 19 years that rains have been delayed by 15 days in the capital. In 2002, monsoon had hit the capital as late as July 19. Due to the delayed monsoon, Delhi has received over 60% lesser rainfall than normal thus far.
IMD
IMD received criticism for its faulty weather alerts
The IMD had earlier announced that Delhi would witness monsoon rains much earlier this time, on June 15. However, rains kept evading the capital city for weeks after that. In fact, the weather department's monsoon forecast for Delhi was wrong at least thrice, for which it received criticism. On Monday, the IMD called its inaccurate prediction of monsoon as "rare and uncommon."
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IMD's statement on wrong weather forecast
"Such type of failure by numerical models in prediction of monsoon advancement over Delhi is rare and uncommon. It is needless to mention that IMD has predicted well, with high accuracy, the advancement of monsoon over Delhi quite accurately in recent years," the IMD said.
Other areas
Rains also expected in Rajasthan, J&K, Assam, other areas
Heavy rainfall in several parts of Delhi today caused water-logging and traffic jams, reports say. Meanwhile, rains and thunderstorms are also expected over Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Telangana, according to the IMD. Separately, dozens of people died in lightning-related incidents over the weekend in UP, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. Most casualties were reported from UP.