Ending a month long wait, heavy rain in Hyderabad and surrounding areas brought immense relief and cheer to the people reeling under extended summer heat.
As thick clouds darkened the evening sky late on Monday in Hyderabad and neighbouring Ranga Reddy district, what started as a light drizzle soon turned in to a torrent and the city recorded 49.5 mm of rains in just a couple of hours.
As the heavy showers turned the roads into lakes and upto two feet of water accumulated at busy junctions, the homebound traffic was stuck at many places due to the logjam. People caught unawares by the sudden change in the weather were drenched.
In Tandur town of Ranga Reddy district, 100 kms from Hyderabad, many low-lying areas were flooded due to the heavy rain. Kagna Rivulet, dried completely received heavy inflows and the entire town was flooded. Residents were put a lot of hardship as water entered homes in Saipur, Indiragnagar and Green City. The town was also cut off from outside as a low lying bridge was also submerged in the floodwaters.
This was the first big rainfall of monsoon season which had officially begun on June 8 in the State. As the complete lack of rains had left the authorities and farmers worried, yesterday’s rains brought some relief to them. Specially the farmers in Telangana, who had sowed the seeds in the hope of good rain celebrated the first rainfall.
Apart from Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, Kurnool, Nalgonda and Guntur districts also received good rainfall. Kurnool town recorded 76.1 mm and Owk town of the district recorded the highest rainfall of 116 mm rain.
More rain has been forecast for Tuesday evening. Meteorological centre in Hyderabad said that coming days will bring more rain for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as a low pressure area was getting formed over northwest and adjoining west central Bay of Bengal and was likely to become well marked in the due course.