NEW DELHI, Aug 13:
Delhi witnessed its heaviest spell of rains this season on Thursday, and heavy downpour lashed parts of Mumbai and neighbouring areas, while the meteorological department predicted more rainfall in the country over the next two-three days.
In Uttar Pradesh, two members of a family were killed and as many seriously injured when a wall of their ‘kutcha’ house collapsed due to heavy rains, and in Madhya Pradesh, the weather office issued an ‘orange alert’ of very heavy rainfall in eight districts till Friday morning.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said large parts of the country are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next two-three days.
A low pressure area has formed over northwest Bay of Bengal off north Odisha and West Bengal coasts. There is also a monsoon trough, plus a convergence of south-westerly winds with moisture from Arabian Sea is likely to continue during the next two days, which will lead to heavy rains over several parts of the country, it said.
Fairly widespread rainfall with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places are very likely over major parts of north India — Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan — during the next two days and decrease thereafter, the IMD said.
Several parts of western India are also expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall. This includes Gujarat, Goa, Konkan, the ghat areas of central Maharashtra, and parts of central India during next four-five days, it said.
“Isolated extremely heavy falls are also likely over Gujarat state during next two-three days and over ghat areas of central Maharashtra during next 24 hours,” the IMD said, adding fairly widespread rainfall with heavy to very heavy falls are likely over Odisha, Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the next two-three days
In Delhi, Thursday’s rainfall inundated low-lying areas and threw traffic out of gear. According to the IMD, the Ayanagar weather station recorded 106.9 mm rainfall, the maximum in the city, since Wednesday morning.
The Palam and Ridge weather stations gauged 99.9 mm and 98.2 mm precipitation respectively during the period. The Safdarjung observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded 83.8 mm rainfall, according to the IMD.
Vehicles moved bumper to bumper during the morning rush hours, as the downpour led to heavy waterlogging at key road stretches. A monsoon report shared by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation mentioned that waterlogging took place at 41 locations. Besides, parts of buildings collapsed at eight places and trees fell at seven locations, it said.
In Maharashtra, heavy rains lashed isolated parts of Mumbai and neighbouring Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts since Wednesday. The weather office predicted more showers in the Konkan region and some areas in the central part of the state over the next one day.
The IMD has issued an ‘orange alert’ with a forecast of very heavy rainfall in eight districts of Madhya Pradesh till Friday morning. Monsoon has been active in many parts of the state, IMD Bhopal centre’s senior meteorologist G D Mishra said.
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