Delhi Rains Alert: Days after seeing Indira Gandhi International Airport submerged in water, Delhi may witness an “extremely bad weather” on Thursday with the potential of disruption of road traffic, drain closures and interruption of power supply, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned as it issued an orange alert for the national capital. The city may witness heavy rains at isolated places and moderate rains in the remaining.
Moderate rain is predicted over the next two days, which means Delhi is likely to witness another record for monsoon precipitation, an IMD official said. The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 25.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
Strong winds are predicted to sweep the city during the day and the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 34 degrees Celsius, a weather department forecast said.
Just five days ago, the inundated forecourt at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3 and the airside had surprised people with videos of the area doing rounds on social media — many were turned into memes too. The flight operations were impacted too with five diversions, three cancellations and over 100 flights being delayed.
In the first video that went viral on social media, presumably recorded by a passenger, the lanes on the forecourt of T3 were seen submerged in rainwater and passengers trying to protect themselves by standing on elevated portions of the area. In the second video, aircraft were seen parked amid knee-deep water. Another clip showed Aerocity similarly deluged.
A DIAL spokesperson was quoted by Times of India: “Due to a sudden and extremely strong downpour, the forecourt of Terminal 3 saw some waterlogging. The primary reason for rainwater moving towards Terminal 3 is the steep gradient of about 17 metres between NH8 and Terminal 3. Due to this slope, the entire portion between NH8 and Terminal 3 acts as a catchment area and channels the water towards the terminal.” The spokesperson claimed the water eventually flowed in the underground drainage system from T3 to the Najafgarh drain.”
WATCH | Parts of Delhi Airport Submerged in Water, Traffic Hit in Several Areas After Heavy Rainfall
The capital has already recorded 1,146.4 mm of rainfall so far this monsoon season, the highest in 46 years and almost double the precipitation gauged last year.
The Safdarjung observatory, which is considered the official weather marker for the city, had gauged 1,150 mm of rainfall in the monsoon season in 1975.
Normally, Delhi records 653.6 mm of rainfall during the monsoon season. Between June 1, when the monsoon starts, and September 14, the city normally gets 607.7 mm of rainfall. The monsoon has dumped 390 mm of rainfall in Delhi this month till Tuesday, the highest in September in 77 years.
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