With the monsoon delayed in the national Capital, residents experienced a sunny and humid Friday under clear skies. Despite forecasts of rain and thunderstorms over the past week, the much-anticipated monsoon continues to elude Delhi. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had initially predicted that the monsoon would reach Delhi on June 24, but that did not happen. It was then expected to arrive on Wednesday, but once again, the forecast did not materialise. The IMD revised its prediction, stating that the monsoon will likely hit the Capital on Thursday, but it failed again. Its not just a one-off mistake either. Time and again, the IMD has struggled to forecast Delhis weather with any meaningful accuracy. From missing sudden storms that blow roofs off metro stations to underestimating rainfall that paralyses entire city, Indias official weather agency finds itself repeatedly caught off guard. This time, IMD predicts that the current weather pattern is likely to change in the next 3 to 4 days. The east-west monsoon trough is expected to shift northward, while the anti-cyclonic ridge is predicted to weaken, both of which could allow the monsoon to enter Delhi. However, no official date has been predicted this time. The long-period average (LPA) date for the monsoons arrival in Delhi is June 27. Last year, the monsoon reached the city on June 28, a day later than the average. In previous years, the monsoon arrived on June 25 in 2023, June 30 in 2022 and as late as July 13 in 2021, according to the IMD. The weather department noted that the city experienced cloudy conditions for the past three to four days. However, only light to very light rainfall occurred in a few areas. The IMD added that Delhi experienced persistent south-easterly winds during this period due to the presence of an east-west seasonal trough and a convergence line running to the south of the city, up to about two km above the surface level. As a result, there was consistent moisture incursion into the city, leading to low to medium cloud formation and scattered light rainfall. However, the mid-and upper-level wind and circulation patterns were dominated by an anti-cyclonic circulation or ridge over the region, which has been inhibiting the advance of the monsoon towards Delhi. The same pattern was observed over southwest Uttar Pradesh and adjoining parts of Haryana and Rajasthan, the IMD said. This pattern, however, is expected to change over the next three to four days with the northward movement of the seasonal east-west trough and the weakening of the mid-and upper-level anti-cyclonic circulation and ridge over the region, the department added. Typically, the southwest monsoon reaches Delhi around June 27-30. Meanwhile, the national capital on Friday recorded a maximum temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius, 1.9 notches below the seasons average, according to the IMD. The minimum temperature was 29 degrees Celsius, 1.1 notches above the seasons average, with the relative humidity was 72 per cent at 5.30 pm. The IMD forecast predicted cloudy skies with moderate rain and thunderstorms with rain for Saturday and issued a yellow alert. The MCD has cleared over 1.93 lakh metric tonnes of silt from drains across the national capital, completing nearly 92.5 per cent of its desilting target ahead of the monsoon. A total of 12,892 small drains and 350 major drains have been covered across the citys 12 zones, according to data compiled by the civic body. From January 1 to June 23 this year, a total of 1,56,148.67 metric tonnes of silt has been removed from large drains across Delhi. The south zone recorded the highest removal of 36,072.56 MT of silt, followed by Najafgarh with 34,541.65 MT and west Delhi with 20,251.49 MT.

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