Red alert for heavy rain in 8 states as monsoon batters north, central and east India; check details here

The monsoon has now swept across the entire country, offering much-needed respite from the sweltering heat in Delhi-NCR and other parts of North India. On Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) confirmed that active monsoon conditions will persist across large swathes of Northwest, Central, and East India over the next 6–7 days, with heavy rainfall expected to continue. The IMD has also issued red alerts for several states already grappling with flood-like conditions.

While the monsoon rains have given a much-needed push to kharif crop sowing, their distribution remains uneven across regions.

In Delhi, the season’s first widespread showers on Sunday provided welcome respite from the oppressive humidity, bringing down maximum temperatures to 32.8°C—five degrees below normal. The IMD has issued a yellow alert for the capital, forecasting light to moderate rainfall to continue until July 5.

As per the IMD, while the rainfall has brought relief from the sweltering heat, it has also triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Heavy rain has also triggered flooding and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Rivers in Uttarakhand are swollen after a week of relentless rainfall, raising concerns of localised flooding. The IMD has issued an alert for heavy to very heavy rain across parts of northwest, central, eastern, and northeastern India over the next seven days, with isolated extremely heavy downpours likely in Jharkhand and Odisha on June 30.

IMD, therefore, has issued red alerts for heavy rain in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Jharkhand. Extremely heavy rain is expected at some places in Jharkhand as well. Rainfall is also likely in Konkan and Goa over the next week, with very heavy rain forecast for parts of northeast India from July 2 to 5.

“There has been a fall in the minimum temperature up to 1 - 2°C and a fall in maximum temperature up to 3 - 5°C over Delhi/NCR during the past 24 hours. The maximum and minimum temperatures over Delhi were around 32 to 33 °C and 22 to 25°C, respectively. The minimum temperature was below normal up to 2 - 4°C and maximum temperatures were below normal up to 4 - 6°C. Generally cloudy sky conditions with predominant surface wind from the southeast direction with wind speeds up to 16 kmph prevailed during the past 24 hours,” the IMD said in a statement.