NEW DELHI: The city witnessed the year’s most intense spell of rain on Thursday, making it the wettest July day in three years. The heavy downpour caused the maximum temperature to drop below 30 o C. Four stations in DelhiNCR received more than 100mm of rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30am Thursday. Tukmirpur-Khajuri logged 160mm, Mayur Vihar received 103mm, Kamla Nehru Nagar in Ghaziabad recorded 164mm, and Hindon received 133mm. The rain disrupted morning traffic headed to schools and offices across Delhi-NCR, with waterlogging on several roads slowing vehicles on key corridors and fallen trees adding to commuters’ woes.
A seven-year-old boy drowned in a waterlogged vacant plot in outer Delhi’s Samaypur Badli and fire services received a complaint that a man had drowned in Bawana canal. However, no body was discovered till Thursday night. There were two deaths in Ghaziabad too — a three-year-old girl who drowned in Vijay Nagar and a security guard who was electrocuted in Indirapuram.Among the worst-hit stretches was NH24 near Ghazipur, while traffic slowed on MB Road, Barapullah, Sangam Vihar and parts of Dwarka. Several roads were inundated, with photos and videos of submerged underpasses, cars resembling boats, and people wading through waterlogged roads flooding social media.
Rain likely to continue till SaturdaySafdarjung, the city’s base station, recorded 73mm of rainfall till 8.30am. Other stations also logged substantial rainfall, including Delhi University (90mm), Mehrauli (83mm), Lodhi Road (80mm), Ridge in north Delhi (78mm) and Chhatarpur (72mm), during the same period.The highest rainfall logged on a single day in July in 2025 was 68.1mm on July 30 and 39.4mm on July 26, 2024. However, July 2023 saw two consecutive days when rainfall was above 100mm at 153mm and 133.4mm. The all-time highest rainfall logged on a single day in July at Safdarjung stands at 266.2mm which was recorded on July 21, 1958.Rain distribution on Thursday was uneven as Jafarpur observatory in north-west Delhi received just 9mm of rainfall till 8.30am. “Radar imagery indicates that the highest reflectivity area has been over north Ghaziabad and northeast Delhi.Accordingly, the maximum rain has occurred over north Ghaziabad and northeast Delhi with the second maxima over central and East Delhi. Only moderate rainfall has been received over Gurgaon and southwest Delhi,” said an IMD official.Several stations saw moderate rain in the day. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm, Safdarjung received 32.4mm, Lodhi Road 33.2mm, Ridge 25.6mm and Mayur Vihar 43mm.The prolonged rainfall caused the maximum temperature to dip to 29.2°C, which was 7.4 degrees below normal. The maximum temperature was 30.8°C on Wednesday and 37.2°C on Tuesday.The minimum temperature stood at 24.3°C, four degrees below normal.Rain activity is likely to continue until Saturday. IMD has issued a yellow alert for a spell of very light to light rain at many places with moderate rain at isolated places with occasional thunderstorm activity on Friday morning or forenoon.
