New Delhi: Heavy rains lashed Delhi and its adjoining areas in the wee hours of Saturday, January 8th, inundating streets in several areas of the national capital. The showers are predicted to continue through the day, as per the Indian Meteorological Department. The city’s Palam observatory recorded 48 mm rain, which is the highest 24-hour rain to be seen in January. The previous record is 45.5 mm on 26 January 1962.
“Widespread Light to Moderate Rainfall with Isolated Hailstorm has occurred over J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan till 0530 hrs IST of today as per IMD’s forecast since last 1 week,” the central weather agency said in a tweet. Light to moderate rainfall and thunderstorm activity is likely to continue over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan till the next 24 hours and subside thereafter, the IMD forecasted on Saturday morning. “Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of Delhi, NCR (Gurugram, Manesar) Farukhnagar, Rewari (Haryana),” as per the IMD.
Visuals of waterlogging emerged from the Pul Pehlad Pur area, Minto road, and Mandawali underpass. The rain comes at a time when the capital city is observing dipping temperatures during the winter month of January. Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality improved to ‘moderate’ from the ‘poor’ category on Saturday morning with Air Quality Index (AQI) standing at 132, as per SAFAR-India.