Heavy rain in Delhi after Yamuna reaches below danger mark; IMD issues ‘yellow’ alert

Several parts of Delhi and its adjoining National Capital Region (NCR) on Wednesday woke up to heavy rainfall coupled with thundershowers and lightning, bringing respite from the sweltering heat. The minimum temperature on Wednesday morning stood at 26 degrees Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also issued a ‘yellow’ alert for most of Delhi-NCR, indicating heavy to very heavy rainfall and heavy thunderstorms. “Heavy to very heavy rainfall and thunderstorm/lightning at isolated places over west Uttar Pradesh. Heavy rain/thunderstorm/lightning at isolated places over HP, Punjab, Haryana, East Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan,” the IMD wrote in its bulletin.

During the early hours, the IMD said that “thunderstorms with light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of Delhi, NCR, and other places”.

Meanwhile, several visuals shared on Twitter showed heavy rain lashing parts of Delhi-NCR that caused waterlogging in some parts of the city.

A video shared by news agency PTI showed dense clouds formed over the national capital.

Yamuna, Hindon water levels

The Yamuna river in the national capital is still flowing just a few centimeters below the danger mark at 205.24 meters, as recorded at 10 pm on Tuesday. Amid heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas – mainly Himachal and Uttarakhand – there have been marginal fluctuations in the water level over the past few days.

The river touched an all-time high level of 208.66m on July 13 which flooded low-lying areas across Delhi, causing evacuations of more than 27,000 people. The losses incurred in terms of property, businesses, and earnings have run up to crores, said reports.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Hindon river – a tributary of the Yamuna – began overflowing due to an increase in the water discharge, submerging a huge yard filled with cars belonging to a private company in the Ecotech 3 area of Greater Noida.