Rain alert for hill states in the Himalayas, Delhi saw max single-day rain after two decades

The India Meteorological Department on Saturday issued red alerts for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh while declaring an orange alert for Delhi, which received its highest single-day rainfall after 20 years.

The two hill states in the western Himalayas, frequented by tourists, are to receive more than 200 mm rainfall on Sunday, the IMD said, alerting the administration on the possibility of flash flood and landslides. Heavy rain has also impacted Amarnath pilgrimage.

The intense rainfall over north west India had been caused by an interaction between the monsoon and the western disturbance, a storm coming from the Mediterranean, the met agency said. This will persist for the next 24-36 hours.

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As a consequence, Delhi-National Capital Region received the season’s first heavy spell of rain, causing widespread waterlogging and threw the traffic out of gear.

Delhi’s base station at Safdarjung airport received 130 mm rainfall – the highest since 2003 when the capital witnessed 133.4 mm rainfall on July 10. Other Delhi stations receiving heavy rainfall are Lodhi Road (120 mm), Ridge (130), and Delhi University and Pitampura (80 mm each).

A productive monsoon in July so far has brought down the overall rainfall deficiency to minus one percent by Saturday with 25 states reporting normal to excess rainfall while 11 witnessing deficiency. The shortfall is largely in the east affecting Bihar, east Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal and parts of the north east.

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Enhancement in rainfall activity was very likely over northern parts of east and northeast India from July 9, the IMD said.

The national weather bureau earlier made a “normal monsoon” forecast for July while maintaining that certain meteorological subdivisions like south interior Karnataka, interior Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar would witness “below normal” rainfall in July.

It also predicted “normal monsoon” for the entire season despite acknowledging the threat of El Nino, which will develop in the second half of the season.