Delhi on course for new August rain record

With some amounts of rain already recorded on 20 of the 22 days so far this month, the Capital is experiencing the highest number of rainy days in the month of August in the past 13 years, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.
In 2012, August saw a total of 22 days where rain was recorded in Delhi – a record that this year’s August is likely to cross with more than a week left in the month still. IMD has forecast scattered light rain in Delhi on Friday, with a yellow alert for light to moderate showers on Saturday and Sunday.
In fact, with no rain recorded in the 24 hours leading to 8.30 am on Thursday, Delhi snapped a streak of 18 back-to-back days of rain starting August 4, data shows. The last time city did not record any rain was on August 3, making this the longest streak of consecutive rainy days in Delhi since at least 2011, the earliest this data is made available by IMD.
Despite repeated queries, IMD did not share data before 2011.
However, the weather agency said August has already crossed the mean number of rainy days (10.2) for August, based on the long-period average (LPA) from 1991 till 2020.
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“The mean number of rainy days (over 2.4mm in rainfall) for Delhi (Safdarjung) is 10.2 days, which has been surpassed till August 22, as 11 such days have been recorded this month,” IMD said in a statement on Thursday.
It attributed this incessant rain throughout the month to the monsoon trough being close to the region, alongside active weather systems.
“A low-pressure area formed over the Bay of Bengal and intensified into a depression over north Jharkhand by August 2,” said the statement, adding this moved across northwest and central India, further intensifying into a deep depression.
Though the impact of this trough had become less prominent by August 6, remnants of this depression remained active till August 16. “This hovered over northeast Rajasthan till August 16, causing moderate rainfall over Delhi on most days between August 7 and 16,” it added.
Delhi so far has recorded 269.9mm of rainfall, the highest for August since 2013, when 321.4mm was recorded.
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In total, Delhi has recorded 717mm of precipitation this entire monsoon season – the highest for the city since 2021, when 1,169.7mm was recorded in the four monsoon months between June and September. The long-period average for monsoon rain over these four months is 640.4mm.
In comparison, the first five months were the driest for Delhi since 2018, with only 44.7mm recorded. In 2018, Delhi had recorded 43.5mm in the first five months.
On Thursday, despite light rain in the evening, the city experienced a relatively hot and humid day, with the maximum temperature settling at 36.6°C – two degrees above normal. The minimum was around normal, at 26.6°C.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air remained ‘satisfactory’ for the 26th consecutive day on Thursday. The average AQI stood at 84 (satisfactory) on Thursday, a point lower than the reading of 85 (satisfactory) on Wednesday.