Thanks to September rains, Delhi records min temp of 23.6 deg C

New Delhi, Sep 28: Delhi on Wednesday logged a minimum temperature of 23.6 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal.

With partly cloudy skies predicted during the day, the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 35 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change) of Skymet Weather, said the southwest monsoon will retreat from some more parts of west Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and the Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat in the next two to three days.

Subsequently, it will withdraw from Delhi-NCR by October 1-2, he said.

The IMD said the line of withdrawal of the southwest monsoon currently passes through Khajuwala, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Naliya.

However, a cyclonic circulation over the west-central Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a low-pressure area which will move in the northwest direction up to Madhya Pradesh. It is predicted to cause rainfall in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan and some parts of Delhi-NCR between October 3 and October 7, Palawat said.

Delhi witnessed incessant rains from September 21 to September 24 due to an interaction between a cyclonic circulation and a low-pressure system which helped it cover a large rain deficit that had piled up over the preceding one-and-a-half month.

The rainfall recorded at the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, swung from a 49 per cent deficit on September 21 to a surplus of 39 per cent on September 24.

The capital has recorded 164.5mm of precipitation against a normal of 121.3 mm in September so far.

On average, the city gauges 125.1 mm of rainfall in September. The incessant rains last week also brought down the overall deficit in the monsoon season.

Delhi's overall rain deficit in the monsoon season dropped from 35 per cent (till September 22) to 17 per cent by September 25 morning.