New Delhi: Delhi has recorded 26.9 mm of rainfall against the normal of 35.7 mm in June so far, a deficit of 25%. India Meteorological Department has also said there could be very light to light rain on Monday night, after which no rain is likely until June 28. This means the city could see a monsoon onset delay, given that the expected date is June 27.India Meteorological Department said that east Delhi has got the maximum rainfall so far. Between June 1 and 21, east Delhi logged 53 mm as opposed to the normal of 41.6 mm, putting it in the rainfall excess category.Four other districts have seen normal rainfall — central, New Delhi, south and southwest.Northeast Delhi got the least rainfall compared to other districts. It has logged 10.8 mm so far and has been placed in the large deficit category. Its deficit is 74%. Northwest Delhi too has seen a large rain deficit of 64%.IMD classifies rainfall as a deficit when it is less than at least 19% of the normal in a given time frame. If the rainfall is between -19% and 19%, it is classified as normal, and between 20% and 59%, it is an excess. A large excess is when rainfall is 60% more than normal.The Met department’s forecast shows that partly cloudy skies are expected from Tuesday up to June 28. It has not commented on when the monsoon onset is likely in Delhi.“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), remaining parts of Telangana and Odisha, some more parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar during the next 48 hours,” IMD said on Monday.The maximum temperature on Monday was 38.4 degrees Celsius, which is near normal for this time of the year. It was 38.9 degrees Celsius a day earlier. “No large change in maximum temperature is expected in the next seven days,” an IMD official said. The minimum temperature was at 27.3 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) deteriorated from 127 in the moderate category on Sunday to 228 in the poor range on Monday.The Commission for Air Quality Management said: “Delhi’s AQI deteriorated sharply owing to a dust storm. Further, the AQI forecast by IMD/ IITM also indicates possibility of improvement in the coming days. The sub-committee on GRAP opined that invocation of Stage-I of GRAP is not required at the moment.”
