Weeklong showers predicted as Delhi wakes up to a rainy Monday, monsoon on way

Morning showers and pleasant weather dissipated the Monday morning blues for office-goers in the national capital region, at least for some time. The euphoria was short-lived as the showers led to waterlogging and traffic in parts of the Capital giving motorists a tough time.

Delhiites woke up to a rainy morning, as predicted, with the minimum temperatures coming down to 24 degrees Celsius, four notches below the average, a MeT department official said. The showers, triggered by a western disturbance, brought the city around 16.6mm of rain till 8.30am. Met officials said that the drizzle is likely to continue through the day.

Motorists faced heavy traffic on some stretches in the city due to water logging and slow movement of vehicles. A Delhi Traffic Police officer, however, said that no major disruption was reported due to the rain although the flow was heavy on certain stretches due to waterlogging.

Thundershowers and rain are likely to occur in some parts of the city in the next 24 hours. The maximum temperature will be around 31 degrees Celsius. The relative humidity level was 95 per cent in the morning.

Met officials had earlier predicted that a couple of western disturbances are likely to hit Delhi-NCR this week. These systems which are actually storms coming in from West Asia would trigger rain and thundershower almost every day throughout the week. The maximum temperature which was hovering around 44 degrees Celsius even a few days before is expected to plummet by over 13 degrees.

Officials at the regional weather forecasting department in New Delhi are hopeful that these systems would drag the monsoon winds closer to Delhi. On Sunday, the minimum temperature was recorded at 26.6 degrees Celsius while the maximum settled at 35.6 degrees Celsius.

In Gurgaon, Monday’s showers led to waterlogging at Hero Honda Chowk causing a massive two-hour jam from Manesar to Rajiv Chowk. The situation could have been worse but heavy police presence on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway ensured the stretch from Signature Towers to Sirhaul toll plaza remained clear.

Traffic was thrown out of gear between 8.30am to 10am at Manesar-Rajiv Chowk stretch. The situation was brought under control after a large contingent of police and civic officials, including police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner V Umashankar, reached Hero Honda Chowk at around 9.15am.

As per Met department officials, Gurgaon had received 32mm of rainfall till 8am.

(With PTI inputs)