Heavy showers bring relief from sultry weather, but flood Delhi roads

Intense thundershowers lashed parts of Delhi on Wednesday, bringing respite from the hot and humid conditions prevailing in the city even as waterlogging was reported from several key road stretches affecting movement of traffic

Intense thundershowers lashed parts of Delhi on Wednesday, bringing respite from the hot and humid conditions prevailing in the city even as waterlogging was reported from several key road stretches affecting movement of traffic.

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India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Safdarjung, Delhi’s base station for weather, recorded 52.4mm of rainfall between 8:30am and 5:30pm. It added that Palam recorded a ‘heavy’ rainfall spell of 92.4mm during the same duration.

With this spell, Safdarjung has already recorded 217.5mm of rainfall in July, surpassing the normal monthly average of 210.6mm. Last year, Delhi recorded 507.1mm in July, over 2.5 times the normal mark. IMD has forecast light to moderate rain on Thursday, stating the monsoon trough is likely to remain close to the capital, hovering north of Delhi-NCR.

“We will continue to see the impact of the monsoon trough, with more rain expected in Delhi on Thursday and Friday. We will monitor the trough as it is dynamic and can move further north, but parts of Delhi are likely to see rain activity until the weekend,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD.

“The trough brought more rain from west of Delhi, primarily impacting south-west, west, south and central Delhi. Wind speeds were recorded at around 30km/hr from 12:30pm onwards, increasing to up to 45 km/hr at Palam,” Jenamani added.

Delhi Traffic Police issued multiple advisories asking commuters to avoid waterlogged stretches at Kapashera intersection, Najafgarh Road, Aurobindo Marg between AIIMS and INA, Adhchini to IIT, Moolchand underpass, MB Rorad near Vayusenabad, Mahipalpur intersection, New Rohtak Road, Zakhira and Anand Parabat.

Traffic jams were reported in area around Dhaula Kuan as both the carriageways on National Highway-8 from Dhaula Kuan towards Gurugram, area under Dhaula Kuan flyover and Ring Road leading from Naraina towards Moti Bagh were inundated.

Around 6.30pm, TomTom traffic index report stated that Delhi had 67% congestion with traffic jams at 709 locations. A congestion level of 67% means that the travel times were 67% longer than during the baseline non-congested conditions.

MCD officials said tree falling complaints were also received from Dwarka Sec-1, Tughlaqabad, Dilli Gate, Paschim Vihar and Netaji Subhash Place.

Met officials said Delhi’s temperature crossed the 35-degree mark by around 11am on Wednesday. However, thunder clouds soon began to form around noon, with a drop in temperature seen afterwards. Safdarjung recorded a maximum temperature of 35.1 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, which is around normal for this time of the year. Delhi’s minimum was 28.2 degrees Celsius, one degree above normal, while relative humidity oscillated between 69% and 100% throughout the day.

After Palam (92.4mm), Lodhi Road received the second highest spell of rainfall across the city, receiving 64mm rain between 8.30am and 9.30pm, followed by Safdarjung (52.4mm), Ayanagar (46.9mm) and Pusa (32mm).

The IMD classifies rainfall as ‘light’ when it is between 2.5 and 15.5mm, ‘moderate’ when it is between 15.6 and 64.4mm, as ‘heavy’ between 64.5 and 115.5mm and ‘very heavy’ when it is over 115.5mm in a 24-hour period.