WATCH | Parts of Delhi Airport Submerged in Water, Traffic Hit in Several Areas After Heavy Rainfall

Parts of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport was submerged in water after heavy rainfall early on Saturday morning, with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing an orange alert for the National Capital Region (NCR). Videos that emerged on social media showed the runaway partially submerged, along with the entrance of the airport and roads leading to the terminal. Nearby Mahipal flyover was waterlogged too.

The rainfall in the national capital, Gurgaon and Noida resulted in waterlogging on crucial routes. Traffic snarls were reported as buses were stuck in areas like Moti Bagh, RK Puram, Jorbagh and Madhu Vihar where roads were waterlogged due to hours-long rainfall.

The southwest monsoon in Delhi may have been erratic and one of the most delayed this season, but it has given the highest rainfall to the national capital in 11 years — 1,005.3 mm so far. This is the first time since 2010 that monsoon rainfall in Delhi breached the 1,000 mm mark.

Normally, the Safdarjung Observatory, which is considered as the official marker for the city, records 648.9 mm of rainfall during the monsoon season on average, according to India Meteorological Department data. Between June 1, when the monsoon season starts, and September 10, it gets 586.4mm of rainfall.

On Friday, the maximum temperature in the national capital settled at 33.2 degrees Celsius, one notch below the normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The minimum temperature recorded at Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for Delhi, was 25.1 degrees Celsius in the morning, considered normal for this time of the year, it said.

The relative humidity recorded at 5.30 pm was 85 per cent. The weather office has predicted a “generally cloudy sky with moderate rain/thundershowers” on Saturday.

Maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to settle around 31 and 24 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Saturday. Delhi’s air quality was in the “satisfactory” category in the morning. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the hourly air quality index (AQI) at 7.05 pm was 79.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor” and 401 and 500 “severe”

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