Record rain batters Capital, rivers in spate across North

Four people were killed as Delhi recorded a little over 261mm of rain, or 125% of the amount it receives on average over the entire month of July, between 8.30am on Saturday and 5.30pm on Sunday in one of the wettest spells the Capital has ever recorded.

- Paras Singh and Snehil Sinha

The fatalities were of people killed by collapsing portions of buildings and uprooted trees. In the 24 hours till 8.30am on Sunday morning, a total 153mm of precipitation was recorded at the Safdarjung station, the third highest figure in the city’s history since records were kept. Between then and 5.30pm, when India Meteorological Department (IMD) last updated data, the city received 105.8mm more.

The downpour meant the city’s roads were waterlogged and many stretches were jammed as water caused deep potholes, and at one crossing in Rohini, a wide sinkhole to open up. IMD officials issued a yellow alert for Monday, predicting light to moderate showers, before the precipitation begins to let up.

In the first nine days of the month, the city has received 296.8 mm of rainfall, nearly 47% of the average it receives during the June-September monsoon season.

Behind the spells of deluge is a rare interaction between monsoon winds blowing in from the south and moist winds from the west (also known as a western disturbance), which has created atmospheric troughs over the northwest of the country, bringing very heavy to extremely heavy spells across several regions.

As a result, several rivers are in spate. A flood alert was issued for Delhi with more than 140,000 cusecs of water released from the Hathnikund barrage on Sunday, upstream on the Yamuna, which will lead to rising levels of the river in the Capital on Tuesday.

The rains led the government to announce that schools will be closed on Monday, a decision that other NCR towns of Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram too took. Delhi also cancelled the leaves of workers on Sunday, with officials and ministers fanning out to parts of the city to survey the situation.