[category]
[title]
After weeks of surviving one heatwave after another, the monsoon has finally arrived in the national capital. Satellite images show a thick blanket of dark clouds stretching across Delhi-NCR and neighbouring regions, but you don't need satellite imagery to know it's here, because rain poured across parts of the city overnight on July 1, gleefully announcing the monsoon's arrival.
By Thursday morning (July 2), the skies had fully committed to the bit. Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad were drenched by moderate to heavy showers, bringing a much-needed drop in temperatures after days of relentless heat and humidity.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) says dense cloud cover has spread across Delhi, parts of central Haryana, Punjab and eastern Rajasthan. From July 2 onwards, the forecast reads like peak monsoon: generally cloudy skies, spells of rain, thunderstorms, lightning and strong surface winds across Delhi-NCR.
What will the temperature be like?
Maximum temperatures are expected to hover between 32°C and 34°C, a welcome downgrade from the scorching 51°C recorded earlier this week. The IMD expects monsoon activity to remain active across northwestern India over the next several days, meaning temperatures are likely to stay relatively stable through the week.
What's the IMD predicting?
As the weather system strengthened through Thursday morning, the IMD upgraded its warning for parts of Delhi-NCR to a red alert, warning of intense thunderstorms, heavy rainfall and wind speeds of 60-80 kmph, with isolated gusts reaching 100 kmph.
The monsoon over the years
Last year, in 2025, the monsoon arrived in Delhi two days behind schedule, with the IMD declaring its onset on June 29. But history says that's nothing to stress about.
According to IMD records, late arrivals aren't unusual. The monsoon also reached Delhi on July 2 in 2016 and 2017. On the flip side, it arrived as early as June 25 in 2020 and 2023. And if you're wondering about the ultimate latecomer, July 19, 2002 remains the monsoon's latest arrival since 2001.
These shifting arrival dates are all part of a much bigger weather story. The pace of the southwest monsoon depends on large-scale weather patterns over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, which means no two years play out the same.
That's exactly what's happening this year. A favourable monsoon trough, combined with a fresh low-pressure system expected to develop over the northwest Bay of Bengal around July 3 (Friday). This is set to keep widespread showers rolling across northern India.
So, expect a soggy week ahead, complete with gorgeous evenings, surreal mornings. And, unfortunately, dialled-up waterlogging and traffic jams. Alas!