Wet winter: Rainfall bashes National Capital, traffic crawls; 36 flights diverted

New Delhi: Heavy rain and hailstorm lashed the national capital on Thursday evening, disrupting air traffic at Delhi airport as 36 flights were forced to divert to nearby cities and several others got delayed due to the bad weather conditions.

The diverted flights mainly due to the hailstorm and gutsy wind conditions coupled with heavy rainfall included 24 domestic, 9 international, 2 general aviation and one IAF flight.

The cold wind along with heavy rain also brought down the mercury level as maximum temperature settled at 19.1 degrees Celsius, four points below season's average.

Rain lashed the capital in afternoon and evening, and was still drizzling in some places till the reports last came in. 

Till 1730 hrs, according to the meteorological department, average rainfall was recorded at 3.2 mm. It was was 9.0 mm at Jafarpur, 4.0 mm Ayanagar, 3.8 mm Lodhi Road and 3.2 mm at Palam.

Delhites also took on the social media to post photos of hailstorm.Interestingly, air quality improved to 'moderate' category due to the rainfall, with index value of 171 at 1800 hrs, likely to improve a further if rain continues. Relative humidity at 1730 hrs was at 100 per cent.

However, water logged at several areas, lead to massive traffic jams with vehicles moving at a snail pace.

Traffic movement was slow on Mehrauli-Badarpur road due to water logging near Batra Hospital. It was also slow on New Rohtak road due to water logging at Anand Parbat , Delhi Traffic Police official informed.

Minimum temperature on Thursday morning was recorded at 15 degrees Celsius.The Met office has forecast a foggy Friday morning with maximum and minimum temperature to hover around 19 and 10 degrees C respectively.(UNI)