Following a long heatwave spell over the northern states, Delhi-NCR woke up to heavy rainfall, waterlogging, thunderstorm, and strong winds that successfully brought down the temperatures in the national capital by 11 degrees on Monday, 23 May.
The temperature on Monday morning in Delhi was 17.2 degrees Celsius, a major improvement noted in the weather.
Mahesh Palawat, the vice president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather Services, a private weather forecast company, took to Twitter to say that the minimum temperature recorded on Monday has been the lowest in the month of May recorded since 1982.
Meanwhile, R Jenamani, a senior India Meteorological Department (IMD) meteorologist, said that one of the impacts of Monday's thunderstorm is drastic fall of surface temperature.
"From 5.40 am till 7 am, it fell by 11 notches, from 29 to 18 degrees Celsius," Jenamani said.
According to The Weather Channel (TWC), widespread rain and thunderstorms are predicted to occur in numerous states of Uttar Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Jammu and Kashmir, north Punjab, Sikkim, Ladakh, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"Fairly widespread rain and thunderstorms have been predicted over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, coastal Karnataka and Kerala," stated TWC.
Dust storms are likely to occur in Rajasthan, while scattered rainfall with thunderstorms are forecast over Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, east Rajasthan, and Karnataka.
Thunderstorms are likely after 4 pm in Delhi-NCR, said TWC.
Temperature-Wise Analysis
The maximum temperature predicted for Delhi-NCR on Monday is 36 degree Celsius, while the lowest (at night) is 24 degrees Celsius.
Uttar Pradesh took a deep breath of relief as many regions saw widespread rainfall on Monday morning. The mercury is predicted to touch 38 degrees Celsius in Noida and Jhansi, but will fall to 24 degree Celsius by the night. For Lucknow, the highest temperature likely is 36 degree Celsius.
Haryana's Gurgaon is predicted to witness a maximum of 38 and minimum of 24 degree Celsius.
On the other hand, Rajasthan will still face heatwaves, as the high temperatures forecast remain at 44 degrees Celsius in Jaisalmer. Jaipur will witness a maximum of 36 degrees Celsius, and Sri Ganganagar 40 degrees Celsius.
Orange Alert in Numerous States
Light to heavy rainfall has been forecast over all the aforementioned states for the next five days.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) also issued specific guidelines for people to follow, in light of the Delhi rains.
Accordingly, the IMD has put all of the northwestern states except Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and West Rajasthan on Orange Alert on Monday, which advises residents to be prepared for the hazardous weather conditions.
"Stay indoors, close windows and doors and avoid travel if possible," the IMD advised.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)