The level of Yamuna in Delhi stayed well above the evacuation mark for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, with the river rising to 207.41 m at the Old Railway Bridge at 9 pm — the third highest ever recorded since 1963. This comes amid a fresh spell of heavy rain in the afternoon, which led to severe waterlogging in several parts of Delhi-NCR, triggering traffic disruptions on arterial routes.
While Yamuna had reached its highest flood level of 208.66 m on July 13, 2023, it had recorded a second peak of 207.49 m in 1978. The evacuation mark for Yamuna in Delhi is 206 m.
The river stayed above the evacuation level of 206 m throughout Wednesday. As per the Central Water Commission forecast at 7.35 pm, the river level may touch 207.48 m by 8 am on Thursday. After that, the level is expected to start coming down.
“The reason for the rising water level is mostly due to the high volumes of water released from the Wazirabad and Hathnikund barrages every hour,” an official from the Central Flood Control Room said. Yamuna has received a discharge of 1.75 lakh cusecs from Haryana’s Hathnikund Barrage, 1.9 lakh cusecs from Wazirabad Barrage and 2.2 lakh cusecs from Okhla Barrage until 9 pm on Wednesday.
The Yamuna river in Delhi had crossed the evacuation mark on Tuesday. As the water level rose, people living in low-lying areas were evacuated by district authorities, and the Old Railway Bridge was closed for traffic.
The situation was further exacerbated by Wednesday’s spell of showers, which was witnessed in Noida too.
Safdarjung, which is Delhi’s base weather station, logged 15.2 mm rainfall by 5.30 pm. Other stations such as Ridge recorded the highest rainfall (59.6 mm), followed by Ayanagar (54.8 mm), Palam (22 mm) and Lodi Road (18.2 mm).
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued red and orange alerts for the city, warning of heavy to very heavy rains. However, it was later downgraded to a yellow alert, asking people to stay on alert. “South easterly winds prevailed with wind speed up to 15 kmph gusting to 30 kmph in the past 24 hours over Delhi,” read the IMD bulletin.
Owing to the rain, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 32.3 degrees Celsius, 1.8 notches below the normal for this time of the year. The minimum temperature settled at 22.8 degrees Celsius, 2.8 notches below average.
Though no alert has been issued for the rest of the week, the IMD has forecast a generally cloudy sky with the possibility of one or two spells of very light to light rain or thunderstorms for Thursday. There is also a possibility of moderate rainfall at isolated places on Friday, it added.
According to IMD, while rainy conditions are likely to continue up to September 7, cloudy skies are expected until September 9.
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The air quality, meanwhile, was recorded in the ‘satisfactory’ category at 4 pm on Wednesday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 57, Central Pollution Control Board data showed.
