Delhi rains: Highest rainfall in 46 yrs; IMD issues orange alert, streets waterlogged. See pics

Delhiites woke up to heavy showers on Saturday, breaking a 46-year record for the highest rainfall at 1,100 mm registered in the national capital during the annual monsoon season. Before this, Delhi had recorded a record-breaking 1,050 mm of rainfall during the whole monsoon season in 2003.

With this, the 2021 monsoons have seen the highest rainfall the national capital has witnessed since 1975 when an overall 1,150 mm of rainfall was registered. Hence, Delhi's 2021 monsoon rain is the highest in 46 years and it is not even over as yet.

The rainfall assessment in Delhi is done according to figures registered by the Safdarjung observatory.

The Saturday's downpour led to waterlogging in several streets due to incessant rainfall in various parts of the national capital.

Also Read: Delhi records highest one-day rainfall for August in 14 years

According to the Safdarjung observatory, Delhi registered 94.7 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am on Friday and 8.30 am on Saturday.

The figures are subject to change as more rainfall is predicted in the national capital during the day.

Many areas such as RK Puram, Moti Bagh witnessed water-flooding. Buses were seen stuck amid waterlogged roads in the wake of heavy downpour in Delhi. In its latest update on Twitter, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said,

"Thunderstorm with moderate to heavy intensity rain and gusty winds with speed of would continue to occur over and adjoining areas of many places of Delhi, NCR (Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Ghaziabad, Indirapuram, Chhapraula, Noida, Dadri, Greater Noida) Kaithal, Karnal, Rajaund, Assandh, Safidon, Panipat, Gohana, Gannaur, Sonipat, Kharkhoda, Jind, Rohtak, Hansi, Meham, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Narnaul (Haryana) Shamli, Kandhla, Baraut, Bagpat, Meerut, Siyana, Hapur, Pahasu, Bulandshahar (Uttar Pradesh) during next 2 hours," IMD said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, in Haryana light to moderate intensity rain would occur over the state as well as the adjacent areas of Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar.

IMD further stated that in Uttar Pradesh (UP) light to moderate intensity rain is expected to occur over "Gangoh, Deoband, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Chandpur, Hastinapur, Amroha, Kithor, Garhmukteshwar, Anupshahar, Jahangirabad, Siyana (U.P.) during next 2 hours."

The weather department said on Friday that widespread rainfall is likely to occur over Chhattisgarh, Konkan and Goa, and Odisha from September 10-12.

It added that isolated extremely heavy rainfall is also expected over Odisha on September 13, and Konkan and Goa on September 13 and 14. IMD further noted that scattered to fairly widespread downpour is likely over peninsular India for the next five days.

Also Read: Record rains cause massive waterlogging in Delhi, cripple traffic

IMD issues 'orange alert'

Issuing an 'orange alert' for Delhi, the weather department predicted moderate to heavy downpour and thundershowers with the gusty wind over the national capital and NCR between 7 am and 10 am on Saturday. An orange alert means very heavy rainfall from 6 cm to 20 cm of rains and is issued as a warning for extremely bad weather.

The IMD has four colour-coded warnings based on the intensity of an extreme weather event and issues them in the ascending order of green, yellow, orange and red.

Waterlogging in several parts of Delhi on Saturday

The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi also witnessed water-logging at the forecourt and in some other areas. In a tweet, the Delhi Airport said, "Due to sudden heavy rain, for a short period, there was waterlogging at the forecourt. Our team was immediately aligned to look into it and the issue has been resolved."

The heavy showers on Saturday caused waterlogging of several roads in different parts of Delhi, as seen in some visuals below.