Hyderabad receives highest January rains in 10 years

HYDERABAD: At 10.1mm, the city witnessed its highest January rainfall in 10 years over 24 hours, surpassing the earlier record of 6.3mm rain on January 14, 2010.

Rains made a surprise entry across Telangana with many districts witnessing heavy rainfall of up to 100mm. According to the Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS), in a span of 24 hours, Shapur Nagar received the highest rainfall in the city of 54.7mm followed by Madhapur (53.8mm), Quthbullapur (48.5mm), Asifnagar (46.3mm) and Golconda (40.8 mm).



The sudden downpour threw traffic out of gear in many arterial roads of Madhpur, Jubilee Hills, Begumpet-Paradise stretch among others. Road conditions in Nizampet (Bhandari layout), Abids, Malkajgiri, Punjagutta among others worsened due to drainage overflow, stagnation and inundation.

“Due to waterlogging at Maitrivanam, vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace from Moosapet to Punjagutta. Adding to the misery was movement of heavy trucks post 8pm. It took almost two hours for me to travel from Kukatpally to Chikoti Gardens,” said Vijay Komma, a search engine optimisation expert.

Meteorologists attributed the rainfall activity to a confluence zone over Telangana. “Along with a cyclonic circulation extending from eastern parts of Vidarbha and south interior Karnataka, there is trough that lies over Bay of Bengal and adjoining Andaman sea,” said Raja Rao, meteorologist at Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad.

While the maximum temperature dropped by three degrees to 26.5 degree celsius, the minimum temperature was two degrees above normal at 18.4 degree celsius.

Rain situation in the districts was much worse. According to IMD, Hyderabad, Nanganur in Siddipet witnessed the heaviest rainfall of 106.3mm followed by Peddalingapuram in Rajanna-Sircilla (80.3mm), Nerella in Rajanna-Sircilla (79.5 mm) and Narmetta in Jangaon at 73mm.

Weathermen forecast that rainfall activity will continue over Hyderabad and other districts for the next two days till January 29 following which the cyclonic circulation is expected to weaken and move in eastern directions.

“After 24 hours, once the system moves away, rain intensity will decrease over Telangana, but light rain will continue over Andhra Pradesh for another 48 hours. Thereafter, temperature pattern would also undergo a change. As a result, minimums would significantly decrease. On the other hand, day maximums would continue to settle in the same range only,” read the weather report issued by Skymet, an independent weather forecasting agency, adding that due to change in air mass, Telangana and AP will observe shallow fog and mist during early morning hours.