IMD Keeps East UP on Heavy-Rain Watch Through 8 Sep; Rajghat Logs 39.6 mm

The India Meteorological Department’s Varanasi city sheet issued by Meteorological Centre Lucknow on 5 September 2026 recorded 39.6 mm of rain at Rajghat in the past 24 hours and 0.0 mm at Varanasi Airport. Maximum temperature was 32.8°C and minimum 27.0°C. The same sheet’s city forecast kept partly cloudy skies with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers across the next several days, with highs near 31–32°C and lows near 24–25°C.

Separately, IMD’s national press release dated 5 September 2026, issued at 1320 hours IST, placed East Uttar Pradesh under fairly widespread rainfall with thunderstorm and lightning during 6–8 September, and under isolated heavy rainfall during 5–8 September. That is the regional watch that covers Varanasi’s meteorological subdivision without converting this desk into a colour-code factory for the city alone.

This package does not claim a Varanasi orange alert. Public tips from RMC Lucknow around 6 September centred orange warnings on Nepal-border districts; Varanasi was not the centre of that orange list. Yellow coverage for a wider district set and isolated heavy rain over eastern Uttar Pradesh for the next few days are the cautious public framing. Scientist Atul Kumar Singh has been named in those public tips; the primary documents for this story remain the city PDF and the 5 September press release.

Rajghat’s 39.6 mm against the airport’s dry 0.0 mm on the same sheet is a useful city reminder. Monsoon rain inside Varanasi is often patchy. A river-gauge-side observatory can log a meaningful fall while the airfield stays blank. Readers chasing a single “Varanasi rainfall” number should look at which station IMD printed.

The press release’s East UP heavy-rain window through 8 September matters for a district still clearing flood water and sewage from low lanes. Isolated heavy spells on top of saturated ground are how inland waterlogging renews even when the Ganga gauge is receding. The IMD watch and the CWC recession can sit on the same week’s board without contradicting each other.

City forecast language on the 5 September sheet is measured: partly cloudy with spells of rain or thundershowers, not a continuous cloudburst script. Day-1 through Day-4 stay in that pattern before a partly cloudy Day-5 line. Temperatures ease slightly in the mid-period. That is guidance for outdoor work and for relief-camp logistics, not a school-closure order by itself.

Primary document for the realised city numbers is the MC Lucknow Varanasi city PDF. Primary document for the East UP watch is the 5 September national press release. Together they give Rajghat’s 39.6 mm, the airport zero, the 32.8 / 27.0 temperature pair, and the 5–8 September isolated heavy rainfall line for East Uttar Pradesh.

Until a fresh district bulletin paints Varanasi in orange, this desk will not do it for IMD. The story is a realised Rajghat fall on the 5 September sheet plus a regional heavy-rain watch through 8 September — precise enough for planners, careful enough not to overstate the city’s alert colour.