Heavy rain brings city to standstill

South Ex, Patparganj Roads Waterlogged; Cloud Cover Keeps Temp At 30°C 

Times of india

New Delhi: A few hours of incessant rain - nowhere close to the heaviest showers experiencedin Delhithisseason - brought the city to a screeching halt on Friday. Clouds that had been threatening rain since morning finally gave way around 2pm and large parts of Delhi recorded medium to heavy showers. Only 13.5mm of rain was recorded atthe Safdarjung observatory but several areas witnessed waterlogging and resultant traffic jams.
    “The monsoon has been active over the northern states for the past few days due to a favourable placement and oscillation of the monsoon trough and a cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal. On Friday, the axis passed through Amritsar, Meerut, Behraich, Chhapra, Panagarh andthen southeastwards to east central Bay of Bengal. More rain is expected in the region till the end of the month,” said a Met official.
    Not all areas experienced rain at the same time. In central and south Delhi, heavy rain started around 2pm and continued for a couple of hours. Southwest Delhi, including Palam, had light showers during the day but a received a heavy spell around 7.30pm.
    “The heaviest rain till 5.30pm was recorded at Pusa which saw 19 mm of rainfall. This was followed by Palam with 18.2mm and Delhi University with 11mm. A dense cloud cover in the morning kept the minimum temperature comfortable at 25.5 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal while the maximum was 30.7 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal,” said a Met official.
    Friday saw the past few days’ momentum of rain over northwest India slow down substantially,even thoughthe Met department has predicted more rain till the end of August. Since Tuesday, especially on Wednesday, the nine districts in northwest India recorded rainfall which was substantially above normal. On Friday,other than westRajasthan which recorded 308% of the long period average for the day and Himachal Pradesh which recorded 57%, the remaining districts got below normal rain.
    Delhi has also seen its share of erratic rainfall and till 5.30pm on Friday, it had totalled 321.5mm. Till Friday morning, Sardarjung was staring at a deficit of 176 mm and Palam had a deficit of 219 mm.
Times View It defies reason that something that is an annual feature – the rainy season – should catch our civic authorities unprepared with such depressing regulatory. It does not need rocket science to recognize that if the drainage system is not unclogged before the rains, there will be waterlogging when the heavens open up. It follows that the drains must be cleaned up before the monsoon. In fact, they should be kept unclogged through the year. Is that too complex a task for the municipal authorities of the capital of a country aspiring to superpower status?

In central and south Delhi, heavy rain started around 2pm and continued for a couple of hours