NEW DELHI – The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for the day after heavy rain fell on portions of Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram on Thursday morning. The weather panel had put the area on a yellow notice before, but the situation got worse because of the heavy rain.
Pictures from the morning revealed a lot of rain and flooding, especially on Basai Road in Gurugram, where people had a hard time getting around waterlogged areas. The IMD has said that most localities will have mild to moderate rain over the next two to three hours, but some areas will see severe rain. The warning for heavy rain is only in effect until 12:30 p.m.
The Capital’s Wet Season
This new rainstorm comes after a week of torrential rain that caused many flights to be delayed or canceled at Delhi’s airports on Tuesday. The National Capital Region and nearby areas have been having a very wet season. Delhi has already seen more than 706 mm of rain this year, which is more than 91% of its usual annual rainfall mark of 774.4 mm, according to a recent survey.
Mahesh Palawat, vice president of Skymet, said this is because a series of “active weather systems dominating northwest India” have kept the plains wet with steady rain. There will probably be more rain this month, which will probably bring the region’s annual rainfall average up.
In the next several hours, the IMD has also issued a heavy rain warning for other states in North India, such as Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Madhya Pradesh, and West Uttar Pradesh.