IMD says monsoon may hit Delhi tomorrow, predicts thundershowers over northern plains during weekend

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecasted that parts of northwest India are likely to receive widespread rainfall today, 9 July.The weather department has stated that monsoon is finally set to advance over the northern plains and thundershowers are expected around the weekend. Monsoon winds are expected to hit the national capital tomorrow, 10 July.“Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain and winds with speed of 20-40 Km/h would occur over and adjoining areas of NCR (Manesar, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida) Khatauli, Modinagar, Hapur, Pilakhua, Dadri (UP) Bhiwari (Rajasthan) during next 2 hours,” IMD tweeted.As the rain cooled the city overnight, the temperature on Friday morning was 4 degrees below normal in Delhi.The meteorological department also predicted that the national capital is likely to witness thunderstorms along with patchy rain from today while the showers will intensify from Saturday. "From today, the rains will increase slightly and from 10 to 12 July, North West India will see very good rains. It is expected that in the next 24 hours, monsoon will also arrive in Delhi NCR and good rains will be seen," Charan Singh, Senior Scientist of India Meteorological Department (IMD), said.IMD added that moist easterly monsoon winds from the Bay of Bengal have begun to establish over eastern India. These winds will gradually spread into northwest India covering states like Punjab and Haryana by 10 July. Likewise, the southwest monsoon will take over the remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, other areas of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi during this weekend.A low-pressure area is likely to form over west-central and Bay of Bengal over north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts around 11 July, a Hindustan Times report said. With these conditions across the country, few states will witness widespread rainfall and isolated heavy rain over Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Punjab on 11 and 12 July.Other states and cities around Uttarakhand will receive very heavy rainfall on 11 and 12 July. Also, scattered to widespread rainfall is likely to cover Central India including parts of Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in the next five days.Reports also suggest that with monsoons being delayed for 13 days, New Delhi is struggling under a rain shortage of 56 percent. Looking into the nation-wide deficit, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have seen excess rains over the past few weeks while 14 other states and Union Territories have received normal rains and 17 others have received less rain than expected.