Rain Lashes Delhi-NCR; IMD Issues Yellow Alert Amid Humid Monsoon Spell

Rain Lashes Delhi-NCR: IMD declares monsoon onset as Southwest Monsoon advances into Rajasthan, West UP, Haryana, and Delhi, covers the entire country on June 29, 9 days ahead of schedule. Yellow alert issued for Delhi and NCR

IMD forecast for Sunday, June 29: Rainy day with yellow alert. Light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning expected today. The sky will be generally cloudy with a max temp of around 36°C. Thunderstorm likely to hit during evening with winds of 30-40 kmph.

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According to IMD, the Northern limit of the monsoon passes through Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jhunjhunu, Bharatpur, Rampur, Sonipat, and Anup Nagar. Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon over the remaining parts of the country in the next 2 days. With this, Delhi is expected to see monsoon showers in the next 2 days. Pre-monsoon shower conditions have already started in the city, which includes a sharp drop in max temperatures, sudden thunderstorms, light to moderate rain, high humidity, etc.

A new international study has found that smoke from crop residue burning in Punjab and Haryana is responsible for nearly one-third of all PM2.5-related deaths in Delhi during the post-monsoon season. The smoke—transported over hundreds of kilometres—becomes the dominant share of organic aerosols, accounting for almost half of it during the worst post-monsoon haze episodes, even surpassing traffic or industrial pollution. Short-term exposure to PM2.5—tiny particles that can enter the lungs and bloodstream—was linked to about 6 per cent of all deaths annually in Delhi and Kanpur, the research found.

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IMD has issued yellow alert for the day, forecasting cloudy skies with moderate rain and thunderstorms. On Sunday, Delhi recorded a min temp of 26.8°C, according to IMD. Air quality was in the “satisfactory” category with an AQI of 85, as per CPCB.

On Saturday afternoon, Delhi-NCR saw strong showers, but weather department has not yet declared monsoon onset in the city.

"We need Safdarjung to report widespread rain to declare the onset. We will look at the 24-hour rainfall data for the region as a whole, including west Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh to declare further onset,” an IMD official told, adding that the monsoon was moving towards Delhi from western Uttar Pradesh.

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