By IANS,
New Delhi : Heavy showers in the capital Wednesday morning created a chaotic situation on the city roads, as waterlogged streets blocked traffic at many places and stranded commuters during the rush hour that delayed people reaching their workplaces.
The drizzle, continuing from overnight, also affected flights and train services. The meteorological department said the wet weather was caused by two mini-cyclones, one over Rajasthan and adjoining areas of Pakistan, and the other over Himachal Pradesh and northern Haryana.
The cyclonic condition in those areas will remain active until Thursday, and would cause heavy rainfall and squall in Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh, the weatherman said.
The Met Office has forecast the wet and windy conditions would continue till Friday in these places. There is also possibility of hailstorms, which may ruin the mango crop that has already been affected by the wet weather.
On Wednesday, between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., Delhi received 14.9 mm rainfall. The maximum temperature was a rather cool 25.2 degrees Celsius and the minimum was 20.3 degrees Celsius.
S.C. Bhan, head of the Indian Meteorological Department here, said the rainfall was within the normal range for this time of the season.
Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim and the north-east are also likely to have widespread rainfall for the rest of the week.
Rains and thundershowers are particularly expected at many places in the north-eastern states until Friday.
The weather in south India will also remain rainy. Thundershowers are forecast in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep Islands.
In central India, isolated thundershowers are forecast in Chhattisgarh and northern Madhya Pradesh, though the overall weather in the region would be mostly dry.
Isolated thundershowers are forecast at some places in northern Rajasthan.
The weatherman says the first monsoon wind has reached western and southern India, though it is still weak. But due to this, the current heat wave in Andhra Pradesh is likely to abate by the weekend.
The following were the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall figure in major cities for the 24 hours till Wednesday evening, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average:
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 29.0 (-12) 20.3 (-7) 36.9
Mumbai 34.5 (+2) 28.6 (+3) Nil
Chennai 41.1 (+4) 28.6 (+1) TRACE
Kolkata 34.6 (-1) 24.6 (-1) Trace
Ahmedabad 40.8 (0) 27.1 (+1) Nil
Bangalore 34.2 (+2) 20.6 (2.3) Nil
Bhopal 40.7 (0) 27.2 (+1) Nil
Bhubaneshwar 36.9 (-1) 27.2 (+2) Nil
Chandigarh 27.4 (-12) 17.6 (-6) 2.0
Dehradun 28.1 (-8) 20.6 (-1) 3.3
Goa (Panjim) 33.9 (+1) 26.8 (-1) 2.1
Guwahati 30.0 (-1) 23.2 (-3) 9.6
Hyderabad 38.2 (-3) 26.2 (0) Nil
Jaipur 38.2 (-3) 26.2 (0) Nil
Lucknow 37.6 (-3) 23.6 (-2) 3.0
Nagpur 43.6 (+1) 29.6 (+2) Nil
Patna 32.2 (-7) 23.0 (-3) 0.7
Pune 36.5 (0) 25.0 (-1) 0.7
Srinagar 26.4 (+1) 15.4 (+4) Nil
Thiruvananthapuram 33.6 (+1) 25.6 (+1) Nil