New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The national capital had a pleasant day on Sunday after a cloudy morning with the maximum temperature at 36.7 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average. Though it did not rain, the weather office predicted good rains on Monday which may even begin in the night as well.
"The monsoon is normal in Delhi. Very light rains are predicted towards Sunday night. However, good rains are predicted for Monday," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The minimum temperature at 28.8 degrees Celsius, and while the day had a humid start with humidity level at 74 per cent, this dropped as the day unfolded.
IMD declared monsoon on July 3 for the national capital, forecasting only patchy rains with little possibility of sustained downpour.
"The monsoon has arrived. We don't see heavy rains coming any sooner yet," an official said.
According to Mahesh Palawat of private weather forecaster Skymet, Delhi has not received typical monsoon rainfall for the past five years.
"Normal monsoon, in which it continues raining or drizzling for many hours, is because of the formation of altostratus or stratus clouds which are low and mid-sheet type. In Delhi, we are only getting cumulonimbus clouds resulting in patchy rains for a short span of time," Palawat told IANS.
Experts say that climate change, disturbance in green cover, urbanisation around Delhi and NCR as well as change in the pattern of monsoon at large are some of the reasons why Delhi no longer receives good rainfall.
However, the IMD hopes that Delhi might receive good rains in the days to come.
