Heavy downpours over most parts of Delhi/NCR, last evening brought the city to a halt. Commuters were caught in the long traffic snarls on flooded roads. Roads turned into rivers and underpasses choked with stagnant pools of water blocking commuters. About ten flights, including an international one, were diverted due to adverse weather conditions. Several houses collapsed in parts of Delhi. Among places that saw heavy waterlogging, leading to long traffic jams were ITO junction, Connaught Place, Minto Road and Moti Bagh flyover.
Bad weather struck large pockets of Delhi/NCR from all sides, simultaneously. Preceded by strong gusty winds, severe lightning and thunder accompanied by blinding rains lashed the capital city and suburbs. Nearly, all the observatories in the affected region recorded over 100mm rainfall in 5-6 hours. Chief amounts of rainfall include Safdarjung-107.6mm, Najafgarh-113mm, Ridge-113mm, DU-104.5mm, Noida-139.5mm and Bulandshahr-104mm. Some places like Mayur Vihar recorded 89.5mm of rainfall in one hour, very close to the cloud burst criterion. Palam observatory recorded 68mm and Pusa 86mm rainfall till 8.30 a.m. this morning.
Red alerts for the heavy rains were sounded with sufficient notice. Caution was extended by Skymet about stormy conditions and heavy rains for two consecutive days, on 31st Jul and 01st Aug 2024, with adequate lead time. The spell of these heavy rains will be counted against 01st Aug, as they happened after 8.30 a.m on 31st July. August is the rainiest month for the capital city with an average rainfall of 233.1mm. Nearly half of it has been realized in a single day, for a few locations.
The proximity of the monsoon trough and the presence of an embedded cyclonic circulation triggered extremely intense thundershowers. Intensity and spread were most widely distributed over a large area, the first time in this season. The trough seems to have shifted southward at a safe distance from the city. It may not have the potential to repeat similar severity of weather today. Adverse weather belt will move to parts of Rajasthan, today. Still, strong easterly winds, aided by the abundant moisture left in the air by the previous spell, will lead to light to moderate showers, today. Sharp showers of moderate intensity and brief duration are likely in the evening hours. Weather conditions will remain largely partly cloudy with chances of passing rain and showers for the next week. During this period, the 04th and 05th of August may observe sultry weather with minimal chance of rain.
Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times
