Delhi clocks little rain, humid conditions set to persist this week

New Delhi

Isolated parts of the Capital received very light rainfall on Tuesday, but it remained a humid day across the Capital despite overcast skies threatening to pour down. Delhi is not expected to see significant rain over the next few days, with humid conditions set to persist, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Forecasting very light rainfall for the Capital, IMD issued a “yellow” alert for Wednesday, predicting light to moderate rainfall on the day, followed by light rainfall over the next three days.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet meteorology, a private weather forecaster, said the monsoon trough was initially expected to hover over Delhi over the weekend and Monday, but it moved north of Delhi fairly rapidly in the past 24 hours. “This swift movement of the trough gave patchy rain, but we are now unlikely to see a heavy spell this week. Similar patchy spells of rain in Delhi-NCR will continue, but heavy rain may occur in the foothills, as the trough of the monsoon is moving there,” he said.

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 36.7 degrees Celsius (°C), which was one degree below normal, but high humidity level of 61-76% kept the heat index or “real feel” temperature at 49°C. The wet-bulb temperature, another indicator of thermal comfort outside, was 29.4°C.

A wet-bulb temperature of 32°C or higher makes it difficult for even fit and acclimatised people to work outdoors for long and at a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C — the maximum threshold — humans can no longer regulate body temperatures, leading to heatstrokes and potential collapse.

The minimum temperature was 30.7°C, which was three degrees above normal.

Palawat said humidity is expected to remain high in Delhi over the next days, due to moisture still being fed in the region. “This will make being outdoors uncomfortable, even if the actual maximum is not too high,” he said.

An IMD official, not wanting to be named, said, “Over the last few days, we have seen isolated showers occur in parts of Delhi-NCR. In a lot of cases, rain has missed Safdarjung and other parts of Delhi completely. On Tuesday too, it was seen at Lodhi road, but not Safdarjung.”

Ayanagar in southwest Delhi was the only weather station to record rainfall, clocking 3.6mm of rainfall till 8.30am on Tuesday. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Tuesday, IMD data showed “trace” rainfall at the Lodhi Road station, but not at any other weather station. The Safdarjung weather station, which is considered representative of Delhi weather, had zero rainfall.

Wind speed also remained low on Tuesday, averaging around 8-10 km/hr during the day. This, combined with high humidity, made it uncomfortable to be outdoors. The higher the humidity, the more difficult it is for the human body to sweat and cool effectively, as the air is saturated with moisture, officials said.