New Delhi: Delhi-NCR woke up to another spell of heavy rain on Wednesday morning, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) extending its yellow alert and forecasting more rain, thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds over the next five days.
According to the IMD, the city is likely to witness generally cloudy skies with intermittent light to moderate rainfall. Winds are expected to blow at speeds of 30-40 kmph, gusting up to 50 kmph during thunderstorms.
Tuesday was Delhi’s wettest day of the year, with 84 mm of rainfall, bringing much-needed relief from the intense heat as temperatures dropped by nearly 10 degrees Celsius. However, the heavy downpour also led to widespread waterlogging, uprooted trees and severe traffic congestion across several key stretches, including NH-48, Geeta Colony Road, Old Rohtak Road and the Akshardham-Noida corridor.
Neighbouring Gurugram also bore the brunt of the rain, with flooding, a road cave-in on NH-48 and massive traffic snarls reported near Rajiv Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk and Narsinghpur.
Skymet Vice President Mahesh Palawat attributed the widespread rainfall to the interaction of a western disturbance over northern Pakistan, a low-pressure system over central Madhya Pradesh and moisture-laden monsoon winds from the Arabian Sea. He said rainfall intensity is expected to ease over the next two days, with only isolated showers likely thereafter.
Meanwhile, authorities declared a holiday for anganwadis, schools and colleges in Karnataka’s Belagavi, Khanapur and Nippani taluks due to incessant rainfall.
The Centre also said India’s monsoon rainfall deficit has narrowed to 12%, with above-normal rainfall recorded during the first week of July despite concerns over El Niño.
