New Delhi: Light spells brought down the mercury and woke up Delhi this morning as it prepared for heavy rains due to Cyclone Tauktae, which made landfall in Gujarat on Tuesday and subsequently weakened. As per the IMD weather forecast, Delhi will experience a “generally cloudy sky with heavy rain today”. The maximum temperature settled at 30.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday morning.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an advisory stating that Tauktae and its remnants would interact with a western disturbance trough, creating an interaction zone above Delhi and adjoining areas. “In addition, high moisture feeding from the Arabian Sea is also likely over north-west India, which would result in heavy to very heavy rainfall over Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, west and east Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and north Rajasthan on Wednesday,” the Met department said.
Delhi: The national capital receives light spells of rain, visuals from Minto Road and Connaught Place.
As per IMD's weather forecast, Delhi to experience 'generally cloudy sky with heavy rain today'. pic.twitter.com/wlMJR7k1Jc
— ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2021
An orange colour-coded warning has been issued for Wednesday for the NCR region with a forecast of rains and squally winds of 50-60 km per hour. The IMD has predicted thunderstorms with rain for Thursday.
‘
The weather change comes in the aftermath of Cyclone Tauktae that ravaged the western coast, leaving 13 dead in Gujarat, 6 in Maharashtra and Karnataka each and two each in Goa and Kerala.
Even as Tauktae’s intensity weakened, it left behind a trail of destruction in different parts of Gujarat. Over 16,000 houses were damaged, more than 40,000 trees and over 70,000 electric poles uprooted, while 5,951 villages faced total power blackout due to the cyclonic storm in the state, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.
Many areas of Ahmedabad city were inundated with knee-deep water following incessant downpour since afternoon as cyclone Tauktae passed northward along the district’s periphery.
Cyclone Tauktae crossed the Gujarat coast as an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” around midnight and gradually weakened into a “severe cyclonic storm,” before further weakening to a “cyclonic storm” now, the IMD said. As it moved north-northeastward, it gradually weakened into a “deep depression” bringing stormy weather across Rajasthan to west Uttar Pradesh during May 19 and 20.