NEW DELHI: Overcast skies, gusty winds and moderate showers led to a sharp drop in the mercury in the national capital on Thursday with Safdarjung, Delhi’s base station recording a maximum temperature of 28 degrees Celsius, which is seven notches below the season’s normal.
Light rain has been continuing in the city as well as in the satellite towns with heavy spells in a few pockets over the past two days, bringing a cooling effect to the region. More showers and cloudy skies are likely over the next few days, weather officials said.
On Thursday, Safdarjung received 38.4 mm of rain between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm. Palam received the heaviest rain spell of 80.9 mm, amongst all other weather stations, during the same period. Ayanagar received 45.8 mm, Ridge 16.8 mm, Lodhi Road 27.4 mm and Delhi University 17.4 mm, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD) records.
The maximum temperature was 28 degrees C, seven notches below normal. Previously, when the city had seen such a drop in day temperature was on September 16 when it fell to 25.9 degrees C — eight notches below normal — which was the lowest maximum temperature recorded in September since 2017.
According to IMD officials, the Western Disturbance as a trough in mid-tropospheric westerlies resulted in widespread showers. “Besides this, the presence of cyclonic circulation over northwest Madhya Pradesh / southwest Uttar Pradesh in the lower level, a system which is likely to persist over the same area during next 24 hours, bringing more showers, was the major factor behind the ongoing weather activity.
The rain at Palam may break the all-time 24-hourly rain record for the month by Friday morning,” said a senior IMD scientist. Due to these systems rainfall activity is occurring over Delhi NCR and west UP, he added. The rains occurred only in the second half of the month. Even then, this month so far has received only 58.5 mm of rain as against the normal count of 108.5 mm, which means a rain deficit of 46 per cent. The normal monthly rain count for September is around 125 mm.
Traffic crawls as rainfall lashes Gurugram
Heavy rainfall led to waterlogging in parts of the city, leading to traffic jams as police struggled to decongest roads.
“Due to continuous heavy rainfall in Gurugram, there is waterlogging at some places and the traffic is moving at a slow speed. We request all of you that you should come out of the house only when necessary,” read the traffic police advisory issued on its Twitter handle.
The traffic moved at a snail’s pace on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway, Signature Tower Flyover and Hero Honda Chowk due to waterlogging.
The waterlogging caused problems near Mayfield Garden, Basai Chowk, AIT Chowk, Atlas Chowk, CRPF Chowk and Sector 10-A. More than 1,000 traffic police personnel were deployed across the city soon after it started raining on Thursday morning.
Gurugram on Thursday received 54 mm of rainfall, with Wazirabad receiving a maximum of 60 mm.