New Delhi: Delhi recorded 153 mm of rain in 24 hours ending 8:30 on Sunday, the best in a single day in July since 1982, the India Meteorological Department stated. An interplay between a western disturbance and monsoonal winds is resulting in an intense rainfall spell over northwest India, together with Delhi which skilled the season’s first “very heavy” rainfall.
The Safdarjung Observatory, town’s major climate station, recorded 153 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8:30 am on Sunday, the best for the reason that 24-hour rainfall of 169.9 mm on July 25, 1982, a senior IMD official stated. It was the third-highest single-day rainfall for July since 1958, it added.
The metropolis logged 133.4 mm of rain on July 10, 2003, 126 mm on July 28, 2009, and 125.7 mm on July 8, 1993. The all-time excessive of 266.2 mm on July 21, 1958.
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Delhi has recorded eight “very heavy” rain occasions (between 115.6 mm and 204.4 mm) in July since 1969, the IMD information exhibits.
The Met Office has issued a yellow alert, warning of reasonable rain which might trigger extra issues to the residents of Delhi.
The climate stations at Ridge, Lodhi Road and Delhi University recorded 134.5 mm, 123.4 mm, and 118 mm of precipitation, respectively.
According to the Met Office, rainfall under 15 mm is taken into account “light”, 15 mm to 64.5 mm is “moderate”, 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm is “heavy”, and 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm is “very heavy”.
Any quantity exceeding 204.4 mm is classed as “extremely heavy” rainfall.
The heavy rain submerged parks, underpasses, markets and even hospital premises, and precipitated chaos on the roads.
Pictures and movies of commuters wading by knee-deep water flooded social media platforms, elevating issues concerning the effectivity of town’s drainage infrastructure.
Strong winds and showers additionally precipitated disruptions in energy and web connectivity in a number of areas.
With the showers bringing again the acquainted scenes of waterlogged roads and lengthy strains of autos caught within the deluge, residents expressed anguish over Delhi’s “poor drainage system”.
Delhi has three main drainage basins: Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans-Yamuna.
During rainfall, stormwater on the jap aspect of the central ridge instantly flows into the Yamuna. On the western aspect, smaller drains merge into the Najafgarh drain, which finally empties into the river.
The jap area of Delhi is low-lying and was initially a part of the Yamuna floodplain. The current stormwater drainage system in Delhi is vulnerable to congestion, primarily attributable to waste and sewage, resulting in sluggish water movement.
Different elements of Delhi expertise annual flooding because of components akin to extreme concrete constructions, the disappearance of water our bodies, encroachments on the stormwater drains, and the discharge of untreated sewage and waste.
The administration of the drainage system entails a number of companies, additional complicating the state of affairs, in keeping with town authorities’s state motion plan for local weather change.
The final drainage grasp plan for Delhi was created in 1976 when town’s inhabitants was roughly 6 million.
The authorities had requested IIT Delhi to organize a brand new ‘Drainage Master Plan for NCT of Delhi’. The institute submitted a remaining report in 2018 however a technical panel of town authorities rejected it, citing “discrepancies in data”.
Earlier this 12 months, the federal government tasked the Public Welfare Department, which manages the biggest half (2,064 km out of a complete of three,741 km) of the storm run-off system in Delhi, to organize a brand new plan.
According to officers, Delhi’s outdated drainage system can deal with solely as much as 50 mm of rainfall in 24 hours.
In April, the PWD had recognized 165 waterlogging spots and 5 hotspots — New Rohtak Road, underneath the Zakira Nagar flyover, the Loni Road roundabout, close to the Jahangirpuri Metro Station, and the Karala Kanjhawala Road. PWD’s central management room additionally displays severe water logging areas by 24-hour CCTV surveillance.
The state motion plan for local weather change identifies “heat waves and heavy precipitation events on fewer number of days” as two main vulnerability ache factors.
The IMD issued a warning of remoted extraordinarily heavy rain in (*40*) Pradesh and Uttarakhand all through Sunday.
Heavy to very heavy rain is predicted in remoted areas of Jammu and Kashmir till Monday, and in jap Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Punjab on Sunday.
The IMD stated heavy rainfall is unlikely within the area ranging from July 11.
Delhi recorded above-normal rainfall within the final 4 months — 53.2 mm towards a traditional of 17.4 mm in March, 20.1 mm towards a mean of 16.3 mm in April, 111 mm towards a traditional of 30.7 mm in May and 101.7 mm towards a traditional of 74.1 mm in June.
The metropolis has gauged 164 mm of rainfall in July thus far. On common, town receives 209.7 mm of rainfall in all the month.
Meteorologists attributed the above-normal rainfall to higher-than-usual western disturbances — climate methods that originate within the Mediterranean area and produce unseasonal rainfall to northwest India — this 12 months.
Amid bountiful rains, the Safdarjung Observatory didn’t report any warmth wave day in the summertime season (April to June) this 12 months for the primary time since 2011.
The IMD has predicted regular rainfall (94 to 106 per cent of the long-period common of 280.4 mm) within the nation in July. However, it anticipates below-normal precipitation over many areas of northwest, northeast and southeast peninsular India.
