Heavy rain lashes Delhi, causes jam

Residents of Delhi and its four satellite towns on Tuesday woke up to a dark sky and heavy rains that lashed the national capital region, causing a heavy traffic jam in the morning hours.

Several areas in Delhi-NCR such as Janakpuri in west Delhi and Gurugram received hail storms. Areas in South Delhi and Noida were water-logged. A chill factor sets in because of strong surface winds and a drop in the temperature.

The rainfall is a part of a wet spell that had befallen on northwest India since the last two days. Its due to a fresh Western Disturbance – a storm that originates in the Mediterranean – which is lying on north Pakistan region and the adjoining parts of Jammu and Kashmir, causing snowfall in the upper reaches and widespread rains in the plains.

“It was so dark at 8 AM that we had switched on the lights. Student attendance was low,” said a teacher of an east Delhi school. Similar was the experience for many residents of Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad.

“Under the influence of the Western Disturbance, widespread rain and snow with isolated heavy to very heavy snowfall are likely over Western Himalayan region during the next 24 hours. There may also be fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity over Punjab, Haryana, West Uttar Pradesh,” India Meteorological Department says in its morning weather report.

Some parts of north Rajasthan and east Uttar Pradesh, as well as Haryana and Chandigarh too, are expected to receive rain in the next two days. Hailstorm too is expected in northwest India on Wednesday and in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on a day after.

Delhi too may experience cloudy sky and some passing showers on Wednesday before the sky clears up from Thursday onward. However, more rain and snowfall are likely by the weekend as a fresh Western Disturbance is expected to reach by January 25.

“Strong surface winds speed reaching occasionally 20-30 km per hour gusting to 40 kmph are also likely over the plains of northwest India in the next two days,” says the IMD report.

The winter rain caused huge traffic snarls in large parts of Delhi throwing the traffic out of gear. Law visibility also delayed the movement of nearly 15 trains, according to the Northern Railway. But on the plus side, two days of rain improved the quality of air as polluting dust particles were washed off.