20 flights diverted from Delhi airport as rains lash city

The weather office has predicted overcast conditions along with the possibility of light-to-moderate rainfall and thundershowers with strong surface winds for Tuesday.

At least 20 incoming flights at the Delhi airport had to be diverted and more than 100 departing flights were delayed after squall and rain, triggered by a western disturbance, hit the capital on Monday evening.

Sixteen flights were diverted from the Delhi airport due to inclement weather (Raj K Raj/ Hindustan Times))

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned that the intensity of rain and strong winds was likely to increase on Tuesday. It would continue till Wednesday morning after which the sky may clear up.

The IMD officials said the number of western disturbances hitting north-west India is higher than normal this February with the last two storms hitting within a gap of just 36 hours.

“The number of western disturbances that hit north-west India is higher than normal this February. Usually around 4- 6 such disturbances hit north-west India in the second month of the year. But this time we already had seven such disturbances. The last two hit in very quick succession,” said BP Yadav, deputy director general of IMD. IMD has forecast that bad weather conditions are continue to prevail over Delhi-NCR till March 5, with another western disturbance expected between March 2 and 3.

By around 8.30 pm, the Safdarjung observatory, which is taken to be a representative of Delhi’s weather conditions, recorded around 2.2 mm rain. Reports of hail poured in from some areas in NCR.

“At least 20 incoming flights had to be diverted and more than 100 departing flights were delayed because of bad weather, VIP movements and the air show,” said an airport official.

While the maximum temperature was recorded at 25.4 degrees Celsius, which was normal, the minimum temperature dropped to 9.2 degrees Celsius, which was three degrees below normal.