Cloudy skies, rain in store for Gurugram over next three days: Met

On Friday afternoon, strong winds accompanied by sudden and heavy downpour left residents surprised. The city received 9 mm rainfall.

Residents can gear up for a wet and cool weekend as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the ongoing spell of rain is likely to last till Monday.

Strong winds, followed by heavy rains, hit Gurugram on Friday afternoon. (HT Photo)

“For the next three days, the city can experience one or two spells of rain or thundershowers and the sky is likely to remain generally cloudy,” an IMD spokesperson said, adding that the maximum temperature is likely to be around 32 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature will stay around 25 degrees Celsius.

On Friday afternoon, strong winds accompanied by sudden and heavy downpour left residents surprised. According to the MeT department website, the city received 9mm rainfall. The maximum temperature was recorded at 33.9 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature was recorded at 24.8 degrees Celsius, on Friday.

Strong winds uprooted a tree in Block C of Sushant Lok 1. “No one was injured in the incident. A few branches of the tree fell on a car, which had three people inside. The victims and neighbours together removed the tree,” said Gopal Krishna Juneja, a resident of Sushant Lok 1.

“I had to wait till the winds stopped to get on the road again. My motorcycle was shaking quite badly,” said Kishan Kumar, a resident of Old Gurugram who was on his way home.

However, there was no information on the wind speed since the automatic weather station (AWS), located at the National Institute of Solar Energy on the Gurugram-Faridabad Road, has been lying defunct since early August.

The rain lasted for about half-an-hour causing minor water-logging on the Old Delhi-Gurugram Road, Golf Course Road, AIT Chowk, Sector 28 and Sushant Lok 1.

“Traffic is affected from Old Gurugram Road towards Rao Mata Din Marg Crossing & Fun N Food Village due to water logging. Kindly avoid the stretch,” tweeted Delhi traffic police. The traffic remained affected for the duration of the rainfall.

Meanwhile, the air quality improved because of the rain.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality index (AQI) for Gurugram, on Thursday, was 125. At 4pm on Friday, the AQI had improved to 101, which is moderate according to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.