The national capital received 138.8 mm of rainfall over 24 hours (from 8.30 a.m. on Friday to 8.30 a.m. on Saturday) — the highest for a single day in August since 2007.
The all-time highest amount of rainfall on a single day in the month was 184 mm on August 2, 1961. Saturday’s reading is the ninth highest in the list.
Safdarjung observatory, which is considered as representational data for the city, recorded 138.8 mm of rainfall. The Ridge observatory registered 149.2 mm of rainfall over 24 hours.
The Narela station recorded 11 mm of rainfall.
The minimum temperature on Saturday was recorded at 23.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below average, while the maximum temperature was 32.6 degree Celsius, a notch below normal.
Delhi’s air quality on Saturday evening was in the “satisfactory” category.
The IMD had issued an “orange” alert for Saturday, a warning for extremely bad weather with the potential for disruption in commuting with road and drain closures, and interruption of power supply. A “yellow” warning has been issued for Sunday, indicating severely bad weather.
Light rain with possibility of “severely bad weather” has been forecast for Sunday.
The Public Works Department received over 334 complaints of waterlogging between midnight on Friday and throughout Saturday as all critical points identified by the agency were flooded for the most part of the day.
According to a senior PWD official, Minto Bridge, which was cordoned off by the traffic police on Saturday morning, was among the first points to get flooded. The situation was brought quickly under control as water was pumped out and the stretch was reopened to traffic.
“The PWD control room began getting complaints of waterlogging as soon as rain started lashing the city on Friday. Most of the vulnerable and critical points around the city got waterlogged,” said a PWD official.
Most complaints of waterlogging came from Azadpur, several points on the Ring Road, Pul Prahladpur underpass, Lajpat Nagar, ITO and Mathura Road.
The average rainfall that the drainage network of the city handle is 50 mm per day, said a PWD official.
Live feeds from ten locations where waterlogging usually occurs is monitored around the clock by the PWD: these include Minto Bridge, Sawan Park underpass, Tilak Bridge, Shakti Nagar underpass, Roshanara underpass, Azad Bhawan pump house, Pul Prahladpur underpass, Bhero enclave underpass, Azadpur underpass and Zakhira RUB.
