Bringing respite from the sweltering heat and humidity in the Delhi and National Capital Region, people woke up to a cloudy morning on Friday. The rain brought down the maximum temperature to 26.5 degrees Celsius and minimum to 26.5 degrees Celsius. The Safdarjung Observatory said on Friday Delhi recorded 18.4 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm.
Palam, lodhi Road, Ridge and Aya Nagar recorded 17 mm, 22.3 mm, 22.7 mm and 24 mm of precipitation. The meteorological department has predicted heavy rain on Saturday.
Incessant rain throughout Friday led to traffic snarls on major roads around South, lutyens’ and Central Delhi, and National Capital Region mainly due to waterlogging, non-functional traffic lights and fallen tree branches.
According to the Delhi Traffic Police, traffic snarls were reported from BRT and Outer Ring Road due to malfunctioning of signal timings near GK, RTR flyover, and lala lajpat Rai Marg.
Traffic jam was also reported from Kalindi Kunj, Vikas Marg, South Extension, Naraina, Kashmeri Gate ISBT, Shastri Park Intersection, Khajuri Chowk, Seelampur flyover, Wazirabad road, Daryaganj road, Mukarba Chowk, DND flyover, Sarai Kale Khan. At least four buses breaking down at Kalindi Kunj, Vasant Vihar, Dhaula Kuan and Pul Bangash choked stretches on the Ring Road leading to snarls.
Police said though the traffic did not come to a halt in any of these stretches, movement on the arterial roads were slow.
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Respite from hot, humid weather pours from sky
Several arterial roads too were reportedly choked with overflowing traffic.
The Skymet Weather report said the day temperature hovered around 27 degrees Celsius and it would not be expected to go beyond 31 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Celsius.
Places such as Panchsheel, New Friends’ Colony, Sarita Vihar, Jasola, Jamia Nagar, Okhla, Kalkaji, Saket, Hauz Khas and Malviya Nagar have reported light spells of rains.
This fresh spell of rains can be attributed to the well-marked low pressure area prevailing over North Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas. The system is presently moving in northwest direction towards Delhi-NCR and also, it is a slow moving system and thus, it will impact the weather for a longer duration.
In addition to this, a fresh western disturbance is also affecting Jammu and Kashmir and neighbouring areas, which will further enhance the rain activity.
Although the showers did bring down maximum temperature in the city to around the 28 degrees Celsius mark, the joy was short lived for evening commuters. Many took to Twitter to vent their frustration. “Honestly, rain right now is like that lost Uber driver . WTF u doing in Delhi all dayIJ,” tweeted a user.
The Delhi Traffic Police also tweeted, “Obstruction in traffic in the carriageway from Kalindi towards Noida due to breakdown of a DTC bus near Yamuna Bridge.”
“Traffic is heavy in the carriageway from Batra towards Tigri (both carriageways) due to water logging at Vayusenabad,” said a traffic police officer.