Orange alert issued as heavy rains lash Delhi-NCR; IMD warns other states of more downpour

Delhi and its adjoining areas on Saturday woke up to a cloudy morning which soon gave way to heavy rain, in line with an orange alert issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD has predicted enhance rainfall activity over northwest India on 11 September. It also said that there will be an increase in rainfall activity over east central India and the west coast from 12 September.

“Thunderstorm with moderate to heavy intensity rain and winds would continue to occur over and adjoining areas of many places of Delhi NCR,” the weather department said in its latest tweet on the situation, at 7:20am.

11/09/2021: 07:20 IST; 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,

— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) September 11, 2021

Several parts of the city witnessed water-logging after constant rain. The weather office had issued an 'orange alert' for today.

Continuous rain causes waterlogging in several parts of Delhi; visuals from Moti Bagh and RK Puram. pic.twitter.com/HpXtex5w7w

— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2021

This is the first time since 2010 that monsoon rainfall in Delhi breached the 1,000 mm mark, the highest rainfall in the national capital in 11 years.

#WATCH | Buses stuck amid waterlogged roads following heavy rains in the National Captial; visuals from Madhu Vihar area. pic.twitter.com/3TyZJWxAix

— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2021

In addition to Delhi, the IMD has said that widespread rainfall is likely to occur over regions of Konkan and Goa, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh from 10 to 12 September.

Furthermore, the IMD has said that isolated heavy falls are likely over Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on 14 September.

Isolated heavy falls are likely over coastal Andhra Pradesh and coastal Karnataka during the next five days, over Kerala during 12 September and 14 September and over south interior Karnataka during 13 to 14 September.

The state of Gujarat, east Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh will also see widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls from 10 to 15 September.

On Friday, 18 roads, including two state highways, were closed in Gujarat owing to water-logging after the state received heavy rainfall in the last two days.

Earlier on Thursday, the India Meteorological Department had said that rainfall in August, which recorded 24 percent deficiency, was the lowest in 19 years. It said that two major spells of weak monsoon prevailed over the country -- from 9-16 August and 23-27 August — when northwest, central and adjoining peninsular and west coast of India had subdued rainfall activities.

This is to be noted that the southwest monsoon season officially commences from 1 June and lasts till 30 September. The month of June recorded 10 percent more rainfall, but both July and August clocked a deficiency of seven and 24 percent respectively, the IMD data said.

Inputs from agencies