NEW DELHI, July 10 -- Delhi and districts nearby received heavy rainfall this week, particularly since Wednesday. As HT reported on Friday, it was not a record-breaking spell in Delhi, but it was still a lot of anomalous rain. To be sure, Mumbai got more rain than Delhi over the four days ending July 10, and most of Meerut got as much rain as Mumbai. In fact, a large part of the western coast got about the same amount of rain as Delhi and neighbouring districts. However, HT's analysis of the gridded data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shows that this quantity of rain is anomalous in the northern districts, not on the western coast. This highlights some important features of the monsoon.

Here are three maps that explain th...