For most of May, the maximum temperature was above normal with a prolonged heat-wave thrown in.
So, a maximum temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius on Monday, eight degrees below the season's average, was reason enough for Delhiites to head out and celebrate the weather.
Rains lashed several parts of the city and the sun played peek-a-boo all afternoon.
Safdarjung received 9.6 mm rainfall while areas under Lodhi Road, Palam, Ridge and Aayanagar recorded 12.8 mm, 24.3 mm, 9.4 mm and 20.3 mm rainfall respectively.
The minimum temperature was 23 degrees Celsius, four degrees below the normal. The humidity oscillated between 98 and 54 per cent.
Flights diverted
About 40 flights were diverted from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on the night of May 29 and 30 due to bad weather.
Flight operations were hit due to severe thunderstorms with tall vertical clouds, accompanied with strong winds at IGIA on evening and night of 29-30 May.
This included Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flight, which had to be diverted to Jaipur.
“The IGI Airport witnessed strong wind with speed of 20 to 35 knots consistently during this period, with some changes in wind direction and hence there were some times severe cross winds at runway,” said Dr. R.K. Jenamani, Director-in-Charge of IGIA MeT unit.
The rain also brought with it water-logging that led to traffic jams across the city late on Sunday and through Monday.
While relatively fewer commuters were affected on Sunday, Monday morning saw vehicles crawl towards their destinations.
Commuters taking detours to avoid the jams only worsened the situation. Among the worst affected routes were between Nehru Place to Chirag Delhi, Lajpat Nagar to South Extension and Palam to NSG red light.
Traffic snarls due to water-logging were witnessed near Qutub Minar metro station, Dhaula Kuna, Delhi Cantonment, the IIT Flyover and Ashram.
The traffic woes returned to haunt the city’s commuters in the afternoon hours of Monday as rain once again lashed the city.
The rains caused the traffic signals at several intersections to stop functioning, forcing the Traffic Police to manually manage the vehicles.
The MeT office has predicted light rains and thundershowers for Tuesday afternoon and evening, with partly cloudy skies.
The drop in mercury, however, will only be for a day as the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover at 38 and 26 degrees Celsius respectively.
