New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) Delhi-NCR residents woke up to humid conditions on Friday morning, with relief expected in the form of scattered rainfall over the next few days as the southwest monsoon advances rapidly towards northern India.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast light to moderate rainfall, thunderstorms, gusty winds and cloudy skies across Delhi-NCR and several parts of North India over the coming week. The monsoon is steadily progressing towards Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, raising hopes of respite from the prevailing heat and humidity.

According to the IMD, light rainfall is likely over Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Rajasthan between June 25 and July 1. Rain alerts have also been issued for western Uttar Pradesh, including Noida and Ghaziabad, for June 26 and again between June 29 and July 1. In eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal), light to moderate rainfall is expected from June 26 to June 29.

The weather office has also issued rain alerts for Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir during the last week of June.

The southwest monsoon is expected to strengthen further across the country over the next seven days, bringing widespread rainfall, thunderstorms and isolated spells of heavy to very heavy rain to several regions between June 25 and July 1.

The IMD has forecast fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds across Northwest India throughout the week. Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are expected to receive intermittent rainfall, with isolated heavy showers likely on June 25 and 26.

Himachal Pradesh is likely to witness a prolonged wet spell, with heavy rainfall forecast from June 26 to June 30. Punjab is also expected to see increased rainfall activity towards the latter part of the week, with isolated heavy showers likely on June 27 and 28.

Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi are likely to experience widespread rainfall, with isolated heavy showers forecast on June 29 and 30. Similar weather conditions are expected in Uttar Pradesh, where rainfall activity is likely to intensify from June 27 onwards, with isolated heavy rain predicted through July 1.

Despite the IMD issuing a yellow alert on Thursday morning and later upgrading it to an orange alert, Delhi witnessed only scattered rainfall. The city’s “feels-like” temperature touched 44.1 degrees Celsius at 5:30 p.m., even though the actual temperature stood at 38 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature for the day was recorded at 38.8 degrees Celsius despite rainfall and strong winds on Wednesday.

According to the IMD, the maximum temperature is expected to remain between 39 degrees Celsius and 41 degrees Celsius until the end of the week.

Rainfall remained limited on Thursday, with only two IMD observatories recording precipitation till 5:30 p.m. Ayanagar received 9.2 mm of rainfall, while Pitampura recorded 1 mm. Safdarjung, the city’s primary weather station, did not record any rainfall during that period.

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, the IMD retained the yellow alert and forecast very light to light rain accompanied by thunderstorms during Thursday night and Friday morning.

The weather office has predicted light rain, thunderstorms and strong winds over the next six days, except on Sunday. A marginal drop in temperature is expected from Monday, with the maximum temperature likely to settle between 35 degrees Celsius and 37 degrees Celsius by July 1.

–IANS

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