Delhi has experienced continuous rainfall since Friday morning, leading to severe waterlogging and traffic disruptions across various parts of the city, with temperatures dropping significantly.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Delhi, forecasting additional showers on Saturday and Sunday. The forecast extends to Noida, Gurugram, and other parts of the National Capital Region (NCR).
According to the IMD, smog or shallow fog is expected to blanket most areas of Delhi, with moderate fog predicted for Saturday morning. The department also anticipates a generally cloudy sky with intermittent rain. A few spells of light rain and thunderstorms are likely to continue until the early afternoon, with overcast skies expected thereafter. Additionally, a spell of shallow fog or smog is forecasted for Saturday evening.
Delhi’s Rain Breaks Records
The persistent rainfall on Friday drenched Delhi and its neighboring regions, setting an unusually wet tone for December and breaking long-standing rainfall records. By the end of the day, Delhi recorded 42.8mm of rain this month, making it the fifth wettest December in the city’s recorded history, and the rainiest since 1997—27 years ago, according to IMD data.
This rainfall, largely caused by an active western disturbance interacting with easterly winds, has transformed the usual dry chill of December into an unpredictable weather pattern.
Safdarjung, Delhi’s primary weather observatory, recorded 30.2mm of rain between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm on Friday, marking the wettest single-day rainfall in five years, according to IMD. The previous record for the wettest single-day rainfall was 33.5mm on December 13, 2019.
Other weather stations also reported consistent rainfall throughout the day. Pusa recorded 35mm, Delhi University received 39mm, Lodhi Road saw 34.2mm, Ridge registered 33.4mm, while Palam and Ayanagar recorded 31.4mm and 18.1mm, respectively.
IMD data indicates that this year’s total rainfall for December has reached levels not seen in nearly three decades.
