Heavy rains lash Delhi-NCR, record breached

(Photo: Anupam Gautam/IANS)


Delhi and its adjoining areas received heavy rainfall on Saturday morning with Safdarjung observatory recording over 1,000-mm rainfall for the season in some areas.

At 7.20 a.m., the India Meteorological Department (IMD) tweeted, “Thunderstorm with moderate to heavy intensity rain and gusty winds would continue to occur over and adjoining areas of many places of Delhi, NCR (Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station).”

The IMD uses four colour codes for weather alerts: green, yellow, orange, and red. Green meaning everything is fine (no warning), a yellow warning of disruption in daily activities (be aware). An orange alert, on the other hand, is for extremely bad weather (be prepared/updated) while red indicates extremely bad weather conditions (most vigil/take action).

In addition to Delhi, the IMD also projected moderate to heavy intensity rain in parts of Haryana, while parts of Uttar Pradesh would receive showers of light to moderate intensity.

There was major traffic disruption on roads due to waterlogging in the South Delhi area around the IGI airport.

the Delhi Traffic Police tweeted alerts: “Traffic is heavy due to waterlogging at GGR/PDR. Kindly Avoid the Stretch.

“Waterlogging near WHO on Ring Road. Kindly Avoid the Stretch,” just after 11 a.m.

The Safdarjung observatory received 5.4 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, with 10.2 mm of rainfall recorded between 5.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. Friday, pushing the figure to 1,015.5 mm-mark for the first time since 2010.

The national capital received 1,031.5mm of rain between June and September 2021.

According to MeT officials, with the rain forecast for the weekend, Delhi could beat the record in September itself.

In comparison to this year, Delhi received 576.5mm of rainfall in the 2020 monsoon season and 404.3mm in 2019.

The annual rainfall received so far this year is 1,215.9 mm now, as opposed to a normal annual mark of 779mm from January to December.

The Air Quality Index is settled at 79 — in the ‘satisfactory’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.