New Delhi: India on As heavy rains lashed the national capital on Sunday, the maximum temperature in the city settled at 33.4 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Delhi received 15.4 mm rainfall in the nine hours ending at 5.30 pm, the IMD said.
The relative humidity was recorded at 96 per cent and the minimum temperature at 26.8 degrees Celsius, an IMD official said. The rains led to waterlogging and traffic snarls in many areas, where traffic had to be rerouted for long hours, leading to a logjam of vehicles in many areas.
The Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to inform commuters about traffic snarls across the city regularly. In one update, the police had said that the underpass at Pul Prahladpur had been waterlogged once again.
They said there was one to two feet of water in the underpass, due to which all traffic there had been diverted. The underpass was reopened for traffic about two-three hours later.
While the Delhi government's PWD has seemingly solved the problem of waterlogging at Minto Bridge, other areas are routinely inundated. The PWD has now identified over 100 key spots where a similar system is being put in place.
The municipal corporations of Delhi also reported waterlogging incidents at various places across the city, with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation alerting that waterlogging had been reported in areas like Mandi Road, Greater Kailash, CR Park and Malviya Nagar. In fact, officials from the SDMC said that a part of the wall of the Shamshan Ghat in Mandi Road had collapsed due to the rains and waterlogging.
The national capital had witnessed uncharacteristically heavy rainfall and an irregular weather pattern in July. The month had recorded several heatwave days, set a record of the most-delayed monsoon in nearly two decades and also set a record for maximum rainfall for this month since
2003.
Interestingly, experts have said that rains in Delhi are changing in nature through the years. They have said that now, there are less days of rainfall in the season and more of short, heavy bursts, which is not leaving enough time for the drainage system to work on the water getting accumulated on streets.
According to the weather department, Delhi is likely to receive normal rainfall — 95 to 106 per cent of the long-period average — in August.
The weatherman has predicted generally cloudy skies for Monday with light to moderate rain and thundershowers. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to settle at 34 and 26 degrees Celsius respectively.
On Saturday, Delhi had recorded a maximum temperature of 33.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's normal, while the minimum temperature stood at 27.3 degrees Celsius.