Cars afloat, roads jammed as heavy rain submerges city

New Delhi: Delhi recorded 228.1 mm of rainfall on Friday, the highest since 1936 for the month of June, and the

weatherman predicted more spells over the weekend in the national Capital.

The Safdarjung Observatory, the city’s primary weather station, recorded 228.1 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours

ending at 8.30 am on Friday, more than three times the June rainfall average of 74.1 mm and the highest for the month in at least 16 years.

Extreme weather events are happening in the national

Capital, as weather experts noted that during the entire monsoon season, Delhi receives nearly 650 mm of rainfall. On the first day of heavy rain this season, the Capital received one-third of its total monsoon rainfall on Friday.

According to the weather department data, after 1936, the city has recorded its highest rainfall in the last 88 years and the second highest in the period from 1901 to 2024.

The Safdarjung Observatory, recorded the highest rainfall on June 24, 1936, with 235.5 mm.

On Friday, Delhi recorded its second-highest rainfall. On June 30, 1981, the capital recorded 191.6 mm, making it the third highest, and

on June 24, 1933, it recorded 139.7 mm of rainfall.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the weather station at Lodhi Road logged 192.8 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours

ending at 8.30 am, Ridge 150.4 mm, Palam 106.6 mm, Delhi University 139 mm, Pitampura 138 mm, Pusa 89 mm, Mayur Vihar 75 mm and Tughlakabad 70.5 mm.

The Met office has forecast generally cloudy skies with moderate to heavy rain and thunderstorms, accompanied by gusty winds, their speed reaching up to 30 to 40 kilometres per hour for Saturday, as the city will be on an “orange” alert.

The IMD has also predicted “heavy” to “very heavy” rainfall in Delhi over the weekend.

“The weather department also shared the total monthly rainfall data for June at the Safdarjung station for the period from 1901 to 2024, revealing that June 2024 recorded the third-highest rainfall in the last 124 years at 234.5 mm. The highest was in 1936 at 415.8 mm, followed by 1933 at 399 mm for the same period,” according to the IMD.

Meanwhile, forecasting models “failed” to predict the extreme weather event that took Delhi residents by surprise early Friday, resulting in a record 228.1 mm of rainfall, meteorologists said.

An IMD official explained that the monsoon winds interacted with the remnants of a western disturbance, causing heavy rains in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu

and Kashmir.

Independent scientists suggested that a thunderstorm over North Delhi could have triggered the torrential rains.

On June 26, the IMD had predicted only light to moderate rain and thunderstorms with gusty winds for Friday (June 28).

On Thursday afternoon, the Met office noted that a trough extended from a cyclonic circulation over central Gujarat to west Bihar in the lower tropospheric levels.

In the weekly weather briefing uploaded on the IMD’s YouTube page, scientist Soma Sen Roy said this trough was pumping moisture into north and central India.

“The east-west trough

is likely to strengthen during

the week and rainfall will increase over north India,” she explained.