Delhi Braces For Heavy Rainfall With 'Orange' Alert Issued

Vehicles move through waterlogged Delhi-Gurugram Expressway service road after heavy rains, in Gurugram, Friday. (Image: PTI)

Delhi is likely to receive heavy rainfall for the next three days as the weather office issued an ‘orange’ alert in the national capital on Saturday, the weather office said.

Parts of Delhi, including Rohini and Burari, received rains on Saturday morning. According to the Met department, 8.9 mm of rainfall was recorded at Safdarjung, the city’s primary weather station, and 12.6 mm at Lodhi Road between 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm on Saturday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted moderate to heavy rainfall on Saturday, with an even heavier spell anticipated on Sunday and Monday, the weather department said.

For the next seven days, the capital will experience moderate to heavy rain, and an ‘orange alert’ has been issued for the next three days, the IMD said in its seven-day forecast.

According to the IMD, moderate rain is defined as rainfall amounting to between 7.6 and 35.5 mm in a day, and heavy rain is defined as rainfall amounting to between 64.5 and 124.4 mm in a day.

The IMD issues four colour-coded warnings — “green” (no action needed), “yellow” (watch and stay updated), “orange” (be prepared) and “red” (take action).

The maximum temperature recorded on Saturday was 35.6 degrees Celsius, which is 1.6 notches below normal, according to the IMD. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 28 degrees Celsius.

The relative humidity oscillated between 80 per cent and 97 per cent, according to an IMD bulletin.

The national capital recorded 228.1 mm of rainfall on Friday, the highest since 1936 for the month of June.

On the first day of heavy rain this season, the capital received one-third of its total monsoon rainfall.

Noting that Delhi receives nearly 650 mm of rainfall in the entire monsoon season, weather experts suggested these could be extreme weather events.