New Delhi: Light rain on Sunday announced the arrival of the monsoon in Delhi and the seasonal phenomenon’s countrywide coverage for this year.The remaining parts of India that had not seen the seasonal rain, such as parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, also got rain.In Delhi, a few areas recorded very light to light rain. For Delhi, the arrival of the monsoon was two days late as June 27 is the normal date. But in cross-country coverage, the monsoon was early by nine days.“The southwest monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and all of Delhi on June 29,” said RK Jenamani, senior weather scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD). “Thus, it has covered the entire country, against the normal date of July 8.” This year saw the onset of the monsoon over the entire country to be the earliest in the last five years.“Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to continue over many parts of north-west, central, east and north-east India in the next 7 days, with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over Jharkhand on June 29 and 30 and Odisha on June 29,” the IMD statement said.For Delhi, the IMD had forecast the monsoon’s arrival on June 24. Last year, the monsoon arrived in the city on June 25, bringing 228.1mm of rainfall in one day. That was the highest single-day precipitation in Delhi for June since 1936. However, this year, the monsoon arrived with just 5.1mm recorded at the base station, Safdarjung, till 5:30pm.Delhi mostly saw light showers through the day and dark grey clouds. As the monsoon arrived, by late afternoon, dark clouds with misty weather gripped the region.“When the monsoon arrives, it does so with medium and low-level clouds. The moisture level was high,” said Krishna Mishra, a scientist at IMD. Palam logged 13.6 mm between 8:30am and 5:30pm; Ayanagar 9.9mm; Lodhi Road 5.3mm, Rajghat 8.3mm, Pusa 1mm, and Najafgarh 2mm.An IMD official said the monsoon onset was declared as the weather criteria for the sub-division were met. “This included widespread light rain, which was seen in Chandigarh, west UP, Delhi and Haryana too. We also had easterly winds. Delhi is part of the sub-division of Haryana-Chandigarh and Delhi,” the official added.For the 2025 season, the IMD has forecast that Delhi should receive normal rainfall. The normal range is 92% to 108% of the long-period average. Rainfall up to 19% excess or deficient is considered normal. In 2024, Delhi logged 516.9 mm of rainfall during the monsoon.The onset of monsoon has lowered temperatures in the capital. The maximum temperature at Safdarjung was 32.8 degrees Celsius, five notches below the normal. The humidity oscillated between 77% and 98%.The IMD has a yellow alert in place for Delhi for Monday, forecasting light to moderate showers to continue. The IMD has said light rain is likely from July 1-5. The air quality remained satisfactory. The AQI was 83.
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