Wet end to February brings traffic chaos in Delhi

Wet end to February brings traffic chaos in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Two powerful thunderstorms moved across the capital, bringing overnight showers and a sharp spell of rain on Friday afternoon that led to massive traffic jams on several arterial roads. The sudden wet turn sent maximum temperature crashing to 21.3 degrees, four notches below normal.

Light showers are likely on Saturday before the weather clears up, the Met office said. On Friday, Safdarjung station recorded 9.4mm rain between 1.30am and 8.30am, and another 9.7mm till 5.30pm. Other spots were wetter with Pusa recording 23mm till evening, Narela 22mm, the Ridge 17.4 mm and Palam 17.2mm.

February ended in the capital with a total of 58.5mm of rain, more than double the average of 19.7mm for February.

While the city received several spells of rain this month, it wasn't nearly as wet as February last year. "Delhi recorded 58.5mm rain in February. This was low compared to 2013, when 103.1mm rain was recorded in February. That was the wettest February in at least a decade," said a Met official.

Delhi's minimum temperature was 12 degrees Celsius, the result of a cloudy sky which did not allow the temperature to fall significantly.

R K Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI Met, said the rain came in the wake of two powerful thunderstorms which moved across Delhi. "The second one was more powerful as it entered Delhi from the southwest side and then covered the entire city before moving out from the northeast around 5.30 pm," he said.

Met officials put the wet spell to a western disturbance. "Several parts of northwest India have recorded rain while the hills experienced snowfall on Friday due to an active western disturbance. Its impact over Delhi will be felt for another day and there may be another spell of rain on Saturday. Another WD is likely to affect the western Himalayan region from March 3," said a Met official.

Bumper to bumper traffic was reported from all the major roads such as Outer Ring Road, Mathura Road, and South-Ex due to waterlogging near flyovers.

Traffic officials said that low to medium level of congestion was reported at the approach to flyovers near the Gurgaon-Delhi expressway, Lajpat Nagar, Peeragarhi, IIT, Sarita Vihar, Nizamuddin, Maharani Bagh, Wazirabad and Azadpur.

"Areas around metro construction sites experienced traffic snarls due to waterlogging. The roads are also narrower on these stretches. There were also problems of vehicles breaking down in water-logged areas," said a senior traffic official.

Jenamani said that February was a month of average fog formation though it witnessed several hours of easterly winds that led to clouding and light rain on 8 to 10 days. The systems that formed over Delhi during this period were unique since they were caused due to the merger of winds from both the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.

"There were five mornings with a total of 17 hours in which CAT-III dense fog was experienced. This is the third highest fog month since 2001. February normally has 11 hours of fog spread over three days," he said.