Delhi experienced another spell of heavy rain and thunderstorms on Monday, with the weather disrupting flight operations at the city’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for several parts of the capital.

At least 15 flights were diverted from Delhi airport amid heavy rain and thunderstorms according to Indian Express, adding to the disruption for passengers as weather conditions deteriorated across the city.

The IMD’s 11 am nowcast warned of heavy rain, thunderstorms with lightning and winds of 30-40 kmph at isolated places across several parts of Delhi. The warning was valid until 2 pm on Monday.

Why has the IMD issued a red alert for Delhi?

The latest warning covers a wide swathe of the capital. South East Delhi, East Delhi, Shahdara, Central Delhi, North East Delhi, South Delhi, New Delhi and North Delhi are among the areas under the heavy rain warning. South West, West and North West Delhi are also likely to receive heavy rain at isolated places.

The IMD has also forecast moderate rain and thunderstorms with lightning at many places across Central, South, South West, West, North West and North Delhi.

The combination of intense rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds is particularly significant for commuters and air travellers, as short-duration heavy rain can quickly affect visibility, road movement and flight operations.

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Delhi has already received more rain than average rainfall for August

Monday’s weather comes after a notably wet month for the capital. As of August 24, Delhi’s primary weather station at Safdarjung had recorded 246.2 mm of rainfall across 12 rainy days. That has already taken the city past its August long-period average of 226.8 mm.

In other words, Delhi has crossed its normal rainfall for the entire month even though August still has a week left. Safdarjung officially crossed the monthly normal on August 14, following several spells of rain through the month.

There had initially been some confusion over when the threshold was crossed because of an entry error in the IMD’s rainfall data. A subsequent correction revised the cumulative figure down, pushing the official crossing of the August normal to August 14.

Where did it rain the most?

Rainfall during the 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Monday varied sharply across the capital.

Janakpuri recorded 29 mm, the highest among the listed weather stations. Narayana received 22 mm, followed by Pusa at 11.5 mm and Palam at 10.6 mm.

Safdarjung recorded 3.4 mm during the same period, while Lodi Road received 2.7 mm. Ridge, Ayanagar and Jharoda Kalan recorded 0.8 mm, 0.6 mm and 0.5 mm, respectively. No rainfall was recorded at Chhatarpur and Pushp Vihar. Data was unavailable from Mayur Vihar, Jafarpur and Najafgarh.

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Not Delhi’s wettest August in recent years

Despite crossing the August normal, Delhi’s rainfall total is still well below the unusually high figures recorded in the previous two years. The capital received 400.8 mm in August 2025 and 390.3 mm in August 2024.

That makes the current month wetter than normal, but not yet comparable with the exceptionally wet Augusts of the past two years. The wettest 24-hour spell this month came on August 8, when Safdarjung recorded 98.7 mm of rain.