Delhi Rain: Delhi-NCR residents will enjoy rain, dip in temperatures till July 3 (PTI)
The monsoon has covered all of India 17 days earlier than usual, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said today, according to news agency PTI. Humidity levels shot up by 90 per cent in Delhi today as rains lashed the national capital, despite temperature dipping a notch below normal. A weather department official said the national capital region or NCR would experience "fairly" widespread rain for the next three days, according to news agency ANI.
However, the dip in temperature will be cherished briefly by Delhi-NCR's residents, as IMD officials said monsoon clouds would weaken from July 4 onwards, leading to a dry spell afterwards.
Delhi residents experienced their first monsoon showers a day earlier on Thursday, with recorded 20.4 mm of rainfall.
Rains lashed financial capital Mumbai late Sunday night, delaying trains, slowing down traffic and leading to water-logging, hitting thousands of school and office-goers on Monday.
Four people died there, while a huge part of a compound wall of a residential complex in Antop Hill in south Mumbai's Wadala collapsed, taking along 15 parked cars.
A weather department official quoted by PTI said good easterly rains were responsible for the monsoon reaching the country earlier than usual this year.
Delhi Rain: Birds take flight in the backdrop of rain clouds over the skies, in New Delhi on Friday, June 29, 2018 (PTI)
The last bastion of the monsoon, in west Rajasthan's Sriganganagar, was breached today instead of the usual July 15 date, which led weather department officials to say the monsoon had arrived early. Officials said good easterly rains advanced the monsoon rapidly.
A press release issued by IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Uttarakhand and coastal Karnataka.
IMD predicted "isolated heavy rainfall" in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, and "isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall" in eastern Rajasthan, according to IANS.
People walk through heavy rainfall, in Shimla on Friday, June 29, 2018 (PTI)
Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency has said the monsoon would weaken from July 3 till July 8 in Delhi, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh and parts of Madhya Pradesh.
The four-month monsoon season usually begins from June 1 and ends on September 30. The South West monsoon gives India 70 per cent of its rain.
(With Inputs From PTI, ANI and IANS)