New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) Delhi will continue to bake for another 10 days due to a delayed monsoon. According to the Met department, the monsoon reached Mumbai Sunday and is expected to hit the national capital around July 1.
“The monsoon reached Mumbai early this (Sunday) morning. Delhi will have to wait longer for the monsoon. It will come around July 1 only,” an official at the Safdarjung meteorological office told IANS.
“Though we were expecting the monsoon to reach Delhi earlier but due to weather disturbances it got delayed and has managed to reach Mumbai only,” the official said.
It has been over 10 days since the southwest monsoon stopped advancing from the Kerala coast.
“Ideally, the monsoon should have hit Mumbai by June 10, and by June 15 it should have reached Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh and, Delhi by June 29,” the official said.
But the monsoon current has weakened due to Cyclone Aila, that wreaked havoc in coastal West Bengal last month. A weakened monsoon has left Maharashtra, Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh still parched.
Monsoon has also been delayed over Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and southern Madhya Pradesh and south Gujarat.
“The rain received across the country has been less than 45 per cent the normal figure for June and if the monsoon does not pick up, it could have severe repercussions,” the official said.
The weather department has forecast clear sky and a maximum temperature of 43 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, and minimum temperature of 29 degrees Celsius Sunday.
The main reason for the scorching heat in Delhi is the increasing level of humidity. Humidity is expected to be around 44 percent, he said.
