Last spell of monsoon rain this weekend

NEW DELHI: Delhi and its neighbouring areas are expected to experience a wet weekend –the last before the monsoon bids farewell to Delhi.

Monsoon had hit Delhi on June 28, a day in advance of its scheduled arrival.

Usually, the monsoon withdraws from Delhi between the last week of September and first week of October.

“This would be the last spell of rain for this year’s monsoon over northwest I ndia, i ncluding Delhi. While traces of rain hit Delhi-ncr on Friday, we are expecting some light to moderate rain over the weekend too. Isolated parts of the city and NCR could get some heavy spells. On Monday, there could be traces again,” said BP Yadav, deputy director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD).

“Once the rain ceases, we would look for withdrawal of the monsoon. The symptoms include no rainfall activity continuously over a period of at least five days, dry air and changing wind pattern,” he added.

The present spell of rain is being triggered by the remnants of Cyclone ‘Daye’, which is bringing in moisture from Bay of Bengal.

In addition, a western disturbance is also approaching. Together, these two systems would trigger rain in most of the states of northwest India.

The IMD on Friday issued warnings in six states. While the red category warning (highest level) has been issued for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, the orange category warning (a notch below the red category) has been issued for east Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and western UP.

IMD scientists said such rainfall activities are normal during this time of the year when the monsoon is on the verge of withdrawal.