New Delhi: Rains continued to lash the capital overnight and are likely to cause water-logging and traffic snarls for the second day in a row. The Met claims that temperature will continue to fall due to chilly winds from the north. Normal life taking a hit in Jammu and Kashmir too. The National Highway is shut for over three days now.
The heavy showers in Delhi broke a seven-decade record for highest rainfall in a single day in February and triggering massive traffic jams due to water-logging across the city on Tuesday. The rain gauges measured 46 mm of rainfall from 8:30 am on Monday till Wednesday morning. In total, Delhi received 57.1 mm of rainfall till 5:30 pm on Tuesday. "Delhi received 46 mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending 8:30 am which is the highest rainfall in a single day in the month
of February in the last 70 years," Met Department Director BP Yadav said.
According to Met figures, the city had received 104.1 mm of rainfall on February 21, 1942 which is the highest single-day rainfall in recorded history. On February 11, 2007, Delhi had received 40.4 mm of rainfall. The Met office said the city is likely to receive more rains in the next couple of days. The minimum temperature was recorded at 13.5 degrees, five notches above normal but the windchill factor led to cold conditions.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 18.6 degrees which is four degrees below normal. Heavy overnight rains, accompanied by thunderstorms, resulted in water-logging in areas across the city and office goers and school students faced lot of inconvenience because of traffic jams.
Vehicular movement was affected across the city including ITO, Vikas Marg, South Extension, Mahipalpur, Hari Nagar, IIT crossing to Adchini, Moti Bagh Yusuf Sarai Market and Munirka. Areas such as Badarpur border, Wazirpur industrial area, Ashok Vihar, Laxmi Nagar, Mahipalpur, ITO, Bhogal, Jungpura, Lala Lajpat Rai Marg, Dhaula Kuan, Janakpuri, Patel Nagar, Khajurikhas and Moolchand also witnessed heavy traffic snarls.
The situation was compounded by non-functioning traffic lights in various areas. Waterlogging was reported from the carriageway from Naraina to Dhaula Kuan on Ring road, Najafgarh and Mehrauli-Badarpur road. The Met department said cloudy weather conditions are likely to continue for the next couple of days. It said minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to be around 12 and 19 degree Celsius respectively on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, over 400 vehicles, including 60 Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs) and mostly trucks, were stranded at various places on the highway at Banihal, Ramban, Patnitop, Kud and Udhampur areas due to closure of the highway, they said. Over 400 passengers are also stranded on the highway, they said.
The men and machines of Border Road Organisation (BRO) are working to clear the highway of snow and landslides but bad weather, snowfall and heavy rainfall together are making the task difficult, they said. Traffic towards Kashmir Valley has been stopped at Nagrota and Sidhra by the traffic police and over 1000 vehicles remain stranded there.
Rains continue to lash the plains of Jammu and other areas whereas continued snowfall was reported in Pirpanchal ranges, upper reaches of Kishtwar, Ramban, Doda, Poonch and Kathua districts. Meanwhile, the authorities said they may allow one-way traffic on the highway from Jammu to Srinagar if the weather conditions improve on Wednesday.
If the route opens, preference will be given to clearance of the vehicles which are stranded on the highway following incessant snowfall, they said. Vehicular movement remained suspended on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway for the third consecutive day on Tuesday due to heavy snowfall and landslides, leaving over 400 vehicles and hundreds of passengers stranded.
In Himachal Pradesh, the higher reaches continued to receive heavy snowfall while the middle and lower hills were lashed by intermittent heavy rain and sleet accompanied by icy, strong velocity winds. The heavy snowfall aggravated the avalanche threat and people in the high-altitude areas have been advised to stay indoors till the weather improved.
The rain and sleet, on the other hand, triggered numerous landslides which rendered several interior areas cut off from the rest of the state. Road access to the tourist resort of Manali, too, was blocked after it received 60 cm snow in the last 48 hours while traffic was curtailed on the Hindustan-Tibet National Highway.
Uttarakhand, too, was in for inclement weather as widespread showers in the plains and heavy snowfall in the higher reaches for the second consecutive day pushed down temperatures in the state. Tehri received the highest rainfall in the state of 61.8 mm followed by Dehradun and Mussoorie which recorded 43.2 mm and 30 mm, respectively.
Mukteshwar shivered at 1.2 degrees Celsius and the MeT office predicted similar weather conditions over the coming days, adding that temperatures could see a further drop of 4-5 degrees. In the plains, moderate to heavy rainfall was reported in many places in western Uttar Pradesh and some places in the eastern districts with Muzaffarnagar recording 12 cm rainfall followed by 7 cm each in Bijnore, Hamirpur and Unnao.
Several places in Punjab and Haryana, too, complained of water-logging and traffic snarls after being lashed by rains while minimum temperatures rose by up to eight notches above normal across both states. Chandigarh received rainfall of 11.5 mm and recorded a minimum of 13.1 degrees Celsius, which was up six notches from the normal. Rajasthan, too, reported overnight showers with Pilani receiving 15.1 mm rainfall followed by Ajmer and Jodhpur with 12.4 and 12.2 mm, respectively.
With Additional Inputs from PTI
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