Monsoon arrives with 23.8mm rain
Declared six days before expected arrival on June 30, may bring in higher than normal showers this year
CHANDIGARH : With 23.8mm rain, the city received monsoon’s first rainfall on Wednesday, six days before its estimated arrival on June 30, and the earliest since 2013.
Officially declaring monsoon in northern parts of Punjab and Chandigarh, officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said more rain will follow on Thursday and Friday as it advanced over further parts of Punjab and Haryana.
As per IMD data available so far, the earliest-ever onset of monsoon was on June 13 in 2008. The rainy season was last declared before June 24 in 2013 on June 16, while it was declared just one day later on June 25 in 2011 and 2015.
On the early arrival of monsoon, regional IMD director Surender Paul said, “This happened due to two reasons. The crossequatorial wind flow was strong this year, which helped push the monsoon system northward faster, and the sea surface temperature also created favourable conditions for an early monsoon in the region.”
Paul said the early onset of monsoon was likely to bring higher than normal rain this year, and showers in the monsoon months (June, July, August and September) may cross the normal of 845.7mm.
Last year, monsoon remained 18% deficient, with 697.4mm rain during this duration. It was delayed by five days so lesser than normal rain was expected.
UP TO 60MM RAIN LIKELY TODAY
Paul said moderate rain up to 60mm was likely on Thursday, but will decrease on Friday and will be followed by only cloudy weather on Saturday.
He warned of a small possibility of heavy rain (over 60mm) on Thursday if conditions remained favourable. There were two spells of rain on Wednesday, with 22mm rain for an hour around 11.30am and 1.8mm rain around 3pm, as recorded at the IMD observatory in Sector 39.
The maximum temperature decreased from 35.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday to 33.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, four degrees below normal. The minimum temperature, however, went up from 28.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday to 29.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, five notches above normal.
In the next three days, the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to remain around 33 degrees and 28 degrees respectively.