IMD puts Gurugram on ‘orange’ alert for rainfall, gust

According to data made available by the district administration, the rainfall accumulated to 12mm by 11.30am at Gurugram city, Kadipur, Harsaru, Wazirabad, Sohna and Manesar.

The city recorded around 12mm of rainfall on Friday from 8am to 5pm, following which the India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgraded an ongoing “yellow” alert to an “orange” alert until Saturday noon, forecasting thunder with hailstorm, lightning and “very strong” winds of 40 to 60km/hr at isolated places.

The IMD cautioned residents to take refuge at safe buildings/houses due to the risk of flying objects caused by gusts of up to 60km/hr and hailstorms. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

However, there was no rainfall in the evening hours.

According to data made available by the district administration, the rainfall accumulated to 12mm by 11.30am at Gurugram city, Kadipur, Harsaru, Wazirabad, Sohna and Manesar.

“Except for Manesar, Pataudi and Farrukhnagar, where rainfall was recorded between 4 and 7mm, other places recorded relatively heavier rainfall during the same period,” a senior official from the district administration said.

The IMD cautioned residents to take refuge at safe buildings/houses due to the risk of flying objects caused by gusts of up to 60km/hr and hailstorms. A “yellow” warning has also been extended to southern Haryana districts, including Gurugram, until Sunday by the IMD due to expected dense fog and dust storms. This is in addition to the orange alert in place till Saturday noon.

Visibility remained between 500 metres and 1,000 metres on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway during the early hours. “The strong weather disturbance, with associated cyclonic circulation extending up to 5.8km above mean sea level, will slowly move eastwards, restoring the ongoing dry weather spell. Another weather system is expected to arrive around January 26, likely bringing another round of rains to the region,” a senior IMD official said.

The IMD’s forecast on Friday extended another “yellow” warning in the district for January 27, preceded by dense cloud formation starting from the night before. Its meteogram-based live forecast on the official website showed cloud cover of 11.81% on Tuesday midnight, reaching up to 54.91% at 8.30pm, indicating overcast conditions to resurface after a few days.

The rainy and partly cloudy conditions in the district on Friday brought significant relief from air pollution, with the air quality index (AQI) improving to a reading of 227 at 4pm, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’s daily bulletin.

Data from the Sameer App as of 6pm on Friday showed three active monitoring stations in varying categories: Sector 51 (with AQI of 304 under “very poor”), NISE Gwal Pahari (284 under “poor”) and Vikas Sadan (92 under “satisfactory”). The district’s AQI saw an improvement of 139 points over the past 24 hours, when the measurable index was at 366 under the “very poor” mark on Thursday.