Lashed by heavy downpour during the afternoon, the city plunged into darkness around 3pm. The heavy showers were triggered by deep depression over Northeast Bay of Bengal, off the Bangladesh coast, bringing ‘orange warning’ of heavy to very heavy rainfall between 7-20cm by the weather office for Kolkata and seven other districts of south Bengal, today.
Following the orange alert issued by the India Meteorological Department, authorities have declared a holiday for all educational institutes in Kannur, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts for Monday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for heavy rains in Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Nashik, Pune and Satara on Tuesday.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel regarding the impending Cyclone Biparjoy and assured all possible help to the state.
As several parts of the country are grappling with severe heatwave conditions, IMD Scientist Naresh Kumar issued an advisory on the current situation in the country.
IMD's senior scientist Naresh Kumar told ANI, "Due to Western disturbances a three-day orange alert for rainfall has been issued for almost the entirety of North India. Rainfall in Delhi too will continue for the next three days". He said that thunderstorm activity usually happens in March-April, but has got extended this year.
A senior scientist at IMD, Naresh Kumar said, "We have issued a red alert for Rajasthan for an intense spell of the heatwave, and a yellow alert for tomorrow. Similarly, we have issued an orange alert for Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh and Delhi."
An orange alert for rainfall denotes very heavy rains from 6cm to 20cm of rain. A yellow alert indicates heavy rainfall between 6 to 11cm while a red alert is issued when there is a likelihood of torrential rains of over 20cm in 24 hours.
Normally, Delhi records 653.6 mm of rainfall during the monsoon season. Last year, the capital gauged 648.9 mm of precipitation.
Moderate to heavy rains will continue in the national capital till Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
