Monsoon shifts its date,leaves June dry

On an average,June registers a rainfall of 55mm. This year so far,rain has occurred very briefly on five days taking the total rainfall to 3.9 mm as recorded at the Safdarjung Met Department. This is the lowest rainfall recorded for June by the India Meteorological Department since 1965 — when 3 mm rain was recorded.

According to the weatherman,the monsoon is likely to reach the city on July 2.

With an average temperature of 39.3 degrees Celsius,June is usually the hottest month of the year in Delhi. The pre-monsoon rains,however,provide intermittent respite through the month.

This year the rains came only on June 8,9,14,25 and 27,and too only traces of it were recorded. The Met office defines ‘trace’ as precipitation of less that 0.1mm. The other days of the month saw harsh summer and heat wave conditions.

The rain shortfall is being attributed to the lack of high intensity Western Disturbances (WD) that bring pre-monsoon rain to the city in June. “This time the frequency of WD was less and so almost the entire Northwest India has had deficient rainfall in June. But rain deficiency keeps occurring from time to time. There is no need to panic as there will be better rains ahead,” said a Met official.

A look at the rainfalls in the past one decade shows good precipitation in this month. Apart from 2009,the rest of the years in the last decade showed rainfall above average. In 2003,the total rainfall recorded was 164.2 mm. The highest rainfall ever recorded for this month was in 1945 — a whopping 414.18 mm.