Rain brings down mercury in Delhi-NCR, flight operations hit

Giving respite from the scorching sun, thunderstorms and rain brought down temperatures drastically in Delhi-NCR on Monday morning. Rain accompanied by a strong wind lashed on to Delhi-NCR on Monday morning, leading to a sharp fall in temperature. “Today, just from 5:40 am till 7 am, the temperature fell by 11 degrees Celsius, from 29 degrees Celsius to 18 degrees Celsius,” said India Meteorological Department (IMD).

“Thundershower with light to moderate intensity rain and gusty winds with speed of 30-40 Km/h would continue to occur over and adjoining areas of entire Delhi and NCR,” said IMD. The strong winds uprooted trees in several parts of the city.

Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were affected on Monday morning due to the weather conditions. The airport authorities have requested the passengers to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. “Due to bad weather, flight operations at Delhi airport are affected. Passengers are requested to get in touch with the airline concerned for updated flight information,” Delhi Airport tweeted. Vistara Flight UK974 (PNQ-DEL) has been diverted to Indore (IDR) due to bad weather in Delhi.

The IMD issued an orange alert for 24 and 25 May for the northern hills. “In the hills like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir we have kept

an orange level warning because the convection is higher today,” senior scientist R.K. Jenamani said. An orange alert is issued when there is isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall consecutively for three days.

Earlier, there has been snowfall in the higher region like Dhauladhar and others. The officials also said that the orange warning for Delhi, Punjab and Haryana was later converted into a yellow warning after a decrement in the situation.