Met predicts a rainy weekend after parts of Delhi go under

Inclement weather and rain are expected to continue over the weekend, though the intensity may reduce slightly on Sunday, weather scientists have predicted.

A sustained spell of unseasonal rain in Delhi and surrounding regions continued for a third consecutive day on Friday, throwing life out of gear and leading to traffic snarls throughout the day with dozens of crucial stretches of roads waterlogged and several trees uprooted.

Vehicles drive though a waterlogged road in Delhi.  (PTI photo)

Inclement weather and rain are expected to continue over the weekend, though the intensity may reduce slightly on Sunday, weather scientists have predicted.

At India Meteorological Department (IMD)’s Safdarjung observatory, Delhi’s base weather station, 72mm of rainfall was recorded on Thursday. The station at Palam, meanwhile, recorded 102mm during the same duration – an unusually high volume of rain for any time of the year, leave along the final week of September when monsoon is on its final (and generally weakest) leg.

The figures till 5.30pm on Friday stood at 8mm for Safdarjung and 30.3mm for Palam.

The near-continuous rain resulted in several busy stretches getting heavily waterlogged, bringing traffic in the city to a screeching halt for the second day in a row. Dozens of uprooted trees and broken-down vehicles, including buses, became hurdles for commuters.

Some commuters also shared images of a pedestrian underpass at the revamped Central Vista Avenue, which was recently inaugurated, inundated. The ministry of housing and urban affairs, however, said that measures had been taken to clear all waterlogging. Officials said that issues in the stretch were a minor problem that was quickly resolved.

Owing to the near-steady downpour on Thursday and Friday, several underpasses in the Capital were submerged, officials said.

Delhi Traffic Police’s control room received 12 calls related to waterlogging and 22 calls of uprooting of trees apart from 19 calls of traffic jams, till 6pm on Friday, officials said. The number of calls continued till late at night, as light rains continued till late into the night.

“The volume of vehicles during the morning and evening peak hours on roads was bad, but was an improvement compared to what the city saw on Thursday. This appears to be because the authorities in neighbourhood cities like Gurugram had asked offices to work from home, while schools for young children were shut in Noida. The other reason for the better traffic situation on Friday was that rainfall in Delhi was not as heavy as it was on Friday,” said a senior traffic police officer, who asked not to be named.

The spell of rain, which scientists have said is prolonging the already-delayed withdrawal of monsoon, also brought down the mercury. The maximum temperature in Delhi fell to 27.6 degrees Celsius on Friday, seven degrees below what is considered normal for this time of the year. According to IMD’s weekly forecast, the day temperature is expected to hover in the same region on Saturday and Sunday.

This unusual end-of-September rain in Delhi is the result of an interaction of two weather systems – a western disturbance (WD) and a low-pressure system – 250km southwest of Delhi. But, now a fresh western disturbance is likely to continue this interaction leading to more rain in northwest India over the next two-three days.

“A fresh WD has formed and is lying over Afghanistan. The remnants of a low-pressure area is lying over northwest Madhya Pradesh. It is an intense circulation at the moment. The fresh WD is likely to interact with the system and bring in even more rain to some parts of northwest India. Over Delhi also we are expecting moderate rain on Saturday,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist, IMD.

According to a separate analysis of IMD’s gridded data by HT, which has a slight variation from the numbers the department releases, Delhi received (on average) 51mm of rainfall for the 24 hours ending on 8.30am on Friday. This makes it the day with the 13th highest recorded rainfall in the final week of September since 1901, the earliest for which such records are available. The 51mm of rain also makes it the second highest rainfall so far in 2022, according to the IMD gridded dataset. On July 1, the city saw 65mm of rain.

The latest spell has also covered a lot of Delhi’s monsoon deficit. In the morning of Thursday, Delhi had an overall monsoon deficit of 41%, which fell to 32.5% by Friday morning. For the month of September alone, the impact of Thursday’s rain was far more dramatic: it turned a 35% deficit to a 14% surplus for the month.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, climate change and meteorology at Skymet Weather, said that the weather was created by unique conditions. The weather system was due to a low-pressure area that had travelled from north Madhya Pradesh till southern parts of Uttar Pradesh. “After mid-September, weather systems created on account of low-pressure areas do not usually travel to north India. They remain stagnant up to the central parts of the country. This time, however, a low-pressure system travelled beyond and resulted in heavy rain which makes it a little unusual,” he said.

He added that this will continue till Sunday. “We will see reduced rain on Saturday but intermittent rain with one or two intense showers will continue.”