The bounteous monsoon this year has already dumped 1159.4 mm of rainfall in Delhi till Thursday afternoon, the highest since 1964 and the third-highest ever, according to the IMD data
Cyclone Tauktae weakened into a 'depression' and lay centred over south Rajasthan and adjoining Gujarat region on Wednesday morning, the India Meteorological Department said.
Monsoon is likely to be 96 per cent of the long period average
Rains have been 5% below normal so far, but Met department sticks to its forecast
The city's 24-hour Air Quality Index, recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 418, up from 334 the previous day, and it may trigger stringent restrictions under the third stage of the graded response action plan to mitigate hazardous conditions.
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a forecast predicting significant precipitation in the city throughout the week, casting a shadow over the series opener.
The cyclonic storm is likely to make landfall between Bhitarkanika National Park and Dhamra Port in Odisha early Friday with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (kmph), it said.
Heatwave conditions are expected over northwest India during the next five days, with Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi predicted to bear the maximum impact, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
"Cyclone Nisarga is likely to become a severe cyclone in the next 12 hours. It will continue to move for the next six hours in a northerly direction along the coast, after that it will re-curve as a cyclone and cross Raigad and Daman-Raigad," Aanand Sharma, deputy director, IMD told ANI.
"This year, the Southwest Monsoon is likely to set over Kerala on May 31 with a model error of four days," the India meteorological department said on Wednesday.
The minimum temperature in the national capital on Saturday settled at 10.2 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season's average, it said.
The IMD DG said there should not be an impression that climate change leads to rise in the temperature, but on the contrary, it leads to erratic weather.
Light to moderate rain in many areas with heavy rain at isolated places is likely to occur in West Bengal's coastal districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur.
The Mungeshpur weather station recorded a high of 48.8 degrees Celsius, eight notches above the normal. It recorded a minimum temperature of 27.6 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) seems to have taken a cautious stand over the World Meteorological Organisation's (WMO) projection of a 'poor monsoon' due to a probable 'El Nino' impact. The IMD did not agree with WMO's projections, saying, "El Nino and the progress of monsoon are not mutually exclusive events", and remained non-committal over its earlier projection of a "normal monsoon" for the June-September 2009 season.
This deterioration in air quality led to prompting enforcement of Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the national capital.
Widespread rains lashed parts of Tamil Nadu on Thursday, prompting authorities to declare a holiday for schools in Chennai and many other districts.
All 80 people stuck at Pali waterfall in Goa's Sattari taluka were rescued on Sunday by the state's Fire and Emergency Services and the police, an official said.
A cyclonic circulation lies over the southeast Bay of Bengal and the adjoining south Andaman Sea extending up to middle tropospheric levels. Under its influence, a low pressure area is very likely to form over the southeast Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood during the next 24 hours.
Intense heat swept through east India and parts of the southern peninsular region on Thursday, testing power grids and prompting the Kerala government to order closure of educational institutions till May 6.
The IMD has issued a red-colour coded warning for the southern areas of Tamil Nadu Kerala in view of the brewing storm and said that these areas are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall.
India received 41 per cent more rainfall than normal from October 1-21 with Uttarakhand alone recording more than five times its normal precipitation, IMD data showed on Thursday.
The news will augur well for the country as large parts have been witnessing agriculture distress and water levels in reservoirs in west and south India have dipped to low levels.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that one person died in the state in cyclone Dana, even as the administration evacuated around 2.16 lakh people from the low-lying areas.
On May 15, the weather office had announced the onset of monsoon over Kerala by May 31.
'We have not even used 0.1% of the available resources.'
A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm, named Remal, on Saturday evening and is likely to turn severe before making landfall between the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on Sunday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Lakhs of voters will have to bear the searing heat when they step out to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
The heavy rains led to water level in various dams in the state rising to the red alert mark, prompting the government to open one of the shutters of Cheruthoni dam of Idukki reservoir in the afternoon.
The IMD director said, the cyclonic storm Tauktae in the Arabian sea is moving away from the Kerala coast and is now approaching the Karnataka coast.
While the IMD had forecast a 'normal' monsoon for the entire season, Skymet stated that rain this year would be 'below normal', report Sanjeeb Mukherjee and Sahil Makkar.
More than 39.8 lakh people in 27 of the 33 districts in the state were affected by the deluge on Thursday.
Several deaths were reported across the country due to rain-related incidents like lightning strikes and drowning.
The mercury in Delhi, which recorded its hottest day of the year so far at 45.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday, came down to 42.4 degrees Celsius, according to the India meteorological department.
It is in more than a decade that the IMD has predicted 'above-normal' rains in the country.
Heavy falls at isolated places are very likely over Kerala on April 29 and 30. The system will not make landfall in Tamil Nadu, but may bring light rain in some northern parts, it said.
At least 10 flights scheduled to land at the Delhi airport were diverted -- eight to Jaipur and two to Lucknow -- due to inclement weather conditions. Airlines also warned of the possibility of more flight disruptions.
Southwest monsoon has furthered advanced into some parts of south Arabian Sea
Heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Kerala on Thursday, leading to waterlogging in the low-lying areas of major cities, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Thrissur.
