Heavy rainfall in Delhi-NCR, IMD issues orange alert

New Delhi: The first day of September started with a record 24-hour rainfall in large parts of Delhi prompting the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue an orange alert for Delhi-NCR on Wednesday.

For the 24 hours ending at 8.30 a.m., Lodhi Road observatory recorded 120.2 mm rainfall while Safdarjung recorded 112.1 mm rainfall even as the IMD issued an orange alert for Wednesday.

The other stations too recorded heavy rainfall with Palam counting 71.1 mm, Ridge 81.6 mm while Aya Nagar recorded 68.2 mm rainfall, IMD said.

Continuing Tuesday's track, heavy rainfall with thunderstorms started the day for the national capital early Wednesday and with rains continuing at peak office hours, commuters faced traffic jams due to waterlogging.

The rainfall recorded from 8.30 a.m. till 11.30 a.m. in various areas of Delhi: Safdarjung - 75.6 mm, Palam - 78.2 mm, Lodhi Road - 75.4 mm, Ridge - 50.0 mm and Aya Nagar - 44.8 mm.

The IMD has predicted thunderstorms with moderate to heavy intensity rainfall to occur over most places in Delhi-NCR for Wednesday. Delhi-NCR is very likely to experience one or two spells of moderate rain with heavy rains at isolated places, the orange alert bulletin (orange alert meaning be prepared) of IMD at 9 a.m. said.

The places which are likely to witness heavy rainfall later in the day include Lodhi Road and the area surrounding the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi, and places of NCR including Gurugram, Ghaziabad, and Noida, according to IMD.

Delhi has been experiencing heavy rainfall for the last two days, resulting in waterlogging and disruption of the vehicular movement.

The maximum temperature on Tuesday was recorded at 28.9 degree Celsius, five notches below from the normal. While the minimum was at 24 degree Celsius, three notches below form the normal.