Rain to intensify on weekend: Met Cops step up boots on ground to minimise snarls, ease movement
: The light to moderate rainfall in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on Wednesday helped bring down the daytime temperature by nearly seven degrees, and the weather department predicted showers on Thursday that are likely to intensify over the weekend.
On Wednesday, the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the official marker for the city, was 27.6 degrees Celsius, seven degrees below the season’s normal. The minimum was 25.1°C, two notches below normal.
At the Palam weather observatory, the maximum temperature fell to 27.2°C, eight degrees below what is considered normal for this time of the year, and the minimum was 26.7°C.
Met department recordings showed that till 5.30pm on Wednesday, Safdarjung recorded 4.1mm rain, Palam received 26.8mm, and Lodhi Road 6mm. The Ridge station received 32.6mm rain, while the Aya Nagar observatory received 22.4mm rain.
This month, Delhi has already broken the record for the wettest July since 2003, recording 381mm rainfall till
NEW DELHI:
Tuesday (July 27).
In July 2003, the city recorded 632.2mm rain. Normally, weather records show Delhi logs 210.6mm precipitation in July.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of India Meteorological Department’s regional weather forecasting centre, said another spell of moderate rainfall is likely to hit the city between July 30 and 31.
“There is a forecast of moderate showers in Delhi and NCR again from July 30, so the cumulative rainfall recording for July this year could be even higher. We will have to see if it breaks any more records,” said Srivastava.
Mahesh Palawat, vice-president (meteorology and climate change) at Skymet Weather, a private weather forecaster, said despite a late start to monsoon, Delhi has managed to exceed the rainfall usually seen in July.
“With just a few spells of rain, we have managed to record a surplus of nearly 200% rainfall already and we still have a few more days for the month to end. A low pressure area (LPA) over north Bay of Bengal has intensified into a well-marked LPA over the same region. This means that in the coming days, intense showers will be recorded in Delhi’s neighbouring states as well,” said Palawat.
A day after the city received over 100mm rainfall in just a three-hour span, which left roads inundated and brought traffic to a standstill, the Delhi traffic police on Wednesday deployed all boots on the ground to ensure movement was managed efficiently.
Though parts of the city saw snarls, especially after the early morning showers, traffic officials said that the situation was better than on Tuesday.
Traffic police chief Muktesh Chander issued the notice after snarls on Tuesday around central Delhi when a DTC bus broke down on Red Cross Road, slowing traffic to a crawl around Parliament, where the monsoon session is underway.
“All circles were also asked to present accounts of the traffic situation in their areas every three hours. They were also asked to coordinate with other government agencies in the event of cave-ins and bus breakdowns, to clear passageways as soon as possible,” a traffic official said.
Though fewer traffic snarls
NEW DELHI:
were reported on Wednesday, to be sure, Delhi’s Safdarjung weather station — data from which is considered representative for the city — recorded only 4.1mm rainfall till 5.30pm on Wednesday, as opposed to over 100mm of rain in three hours, between 5.30am and 8.30am, on Tuesday; this meant that roads were relatively clear of waterlogging.
However, instances of vehicle breakdowns and road cave-ins were reported from some areas.
Traffic police said that after the rain on Wednesday, a portion of Shahjahan Road near Jamnagar House caved-in, after which the area was cordoned off and traffic movement was allowed only on a single carriageway.
“The portion of the road has been temporarily fixed and traffic was being allowed here through the day,” the traffic department said.
Snarls were reported from Newada, Ashok Vihar, Dhaula Kuan, AIIMS flyover, Ring Road, Rajouri Garden, Dwarka Mor and Palam flyover.