NEW DELHI: Heavy rains splashed parts of the national capital on Tuesday, bringing the traffic to a standstill with key stretches being waterlogged in many places due to the uprooting of trees. In a highly ‘localised’ weather event, the heavy spells occurred mainly in the northern part of the city while Safdarjung did not record any rain during the day, state weather officials said.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi Ridge recorded 87mm of rain and Delhi University weather station received 83.5 mm of rain in just 1.5 hours. Besides, Najafgarh station received 9.5 mm of rain while both Lodhi Road and Ayanagar received only ‘traces’ (non-measurable) of rain.
“The heavy spells over Delhi Ridge and adjoining DU were a highly localised rainfall activity, which occurred between 3.45 pm and 5.30 pm. The IMD observed two areas Ridge synoptic-Manual and DU-AWS-Automatic stations, both located just within a distance of 3 km and have recorded 87.0 mm and 83.5mm rain respectively,” said R K Jenamani, senior IMD scientist.
It was observed that about seven stations recorded no rainfall while Najafgarh received 9.5mm rain and both Lodhi Road and Ayanagar received only ‘traces’ (non-measurable) of rain, which made it a “highly localised heavy rainfall event,” he added.
IMD scientists said that rainfall occurred mostly over northern parts of Delhi while most of the southern parts of the city were missed. “It was due to lower level moisture-laden easterly/southeasterly winds reaching up to Delhi-NCR in association with the low-pressure area over the northwest bay as well as the presence of Western Disturbance as a trough in mid-tropospheric westerly’s lying close to the area resulted in heavy rain and high-velocity winds,” said a senior IMD scientist. IMD’s seven-day forecast has predicted overcast skies and light to moderate showers till September 26.
So far, this month has received only 52.7 mm of rain as against the normal count of 101.4 mm, which means a rain deficit of 48 per cent. This season is likely to end in a large rain deficit with the monsoon to withdraw from September 25.