Southwest Monsoon has entered Delhi, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Friday, June 28, amid record rain that brought the city to a standstill due to severe waterlogging and traffic jams.
According to the IMD, Delhi recorded 228 mm of rainfall from 8:30 AM on Thursday to 8:30 AM on Friday, the highest 24-hour rainfall in June since 1936.
Southwest Monsoon further advanced into some more parts of West Rajasthan, remaining parts of East Rajasthan, some parts of Haryana, entire Delhi, some more parts of West Uttar Pradesh; remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and some more parts of East Uttar Pradesh," IMD said
IMD said conditions are likely to become favourable for further advance of southwest Monsoon into some more parts of West Rajasthan; remaining parts of Haryana, entire Chandigarh and remaining parts of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu during next two-three days.
Heavy rain that started in the wee hours of Friday continued for hours in Delhi and adjoining areas of Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram, leading to waterlogging, massive traffic jams in several parts of the cities and a tragic roof-collapse incident at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) which killed one person and injured four others.
Cars were submerged, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor was even seen rowing an inflatable boat on Delhi roads.
The Delhi government called an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to take stock of the situation in the city after heavy rains left the national capital waterlogged. All Cabinet ministers and top officials were expected to attend the meeting scheduled at the Secretariat at 2 pm, officials said.
The Safdarjung weather station recorded 153.7 mm of rainfall, which began around 3 am. IMD defines very heavy rain as rainfall amounting to between 124.5 and 244.4 mm in a day.
Delhi Traffic Police also posted continuous updates on microblogging platform X about routes where traffic was affected on Friday morning after heavy rain caused waterlogging and uprooted trees.
