Delhi experiences historic June rainfall, resulting in severe flooding and 11 deaths, India

On June 28, 2024, Delhi, India recorded the highest June rainfall in 88 years, causing severe flooding and widespread damage. At least 11 people have been killed, including 4 children. Forecasts predict more rains over the weekend.

On June 28, 2024, Delhi recorded 228.1 mm (11.06 inches) of rainfall starting at 04:00 and ending at 08:30 LT — the highest in 24 hours for the month of June since 1936. Ghaziabad has been issued a Yellow alert, and all other regions are under an Orange alert.

The rains flooded major portions of the city and the adjoining regions, at least 11 people have been reported dead, and many sustained injuries in separate incidents, including 2 children aged 8 and 10 years. The first death was reported from the Delhi airport where a 45-year-old cab driver died after a canopy fell over his parked car.

Around the same time, the Delhi Fire Service received a call to rescue 3 laborers trapped and later lost their lives in the Vasant Vihar area in a mud slush at an under-construction site. “Some laborers were sleeping there when the ground caved in due to rains,” an officer told The Indian Express.

According to a senior Delhi Fire Service officer, they received information about the incident at 05:37 LT after which four fire tender-cum-rescue vehicles were immediately dispatched. L-G VK Saxena ordered a 24×7 emergency control room staffed by senior officials from civic agencies, DDA, irrigation and flood control, PWD, and Delhi Police.

In the New Usmanpur area, two kids aged 8 and 10 years died after they drowned in a pool of rainwater in the evening. Water entered homes, submerging vehicles and leading to massive traffic snarls that took hours to clear. Thousands of commuters found themselves stranded.

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) press release described the causes of heavy rainfall in Delhi on June 28:

“The heavy rainfall activity over Delhi during the early hours of 28 June can be attributed to the following. Considering the monsoon circulation, the advance of the monsoon was stalled over eastern India for quite a long time due to a weaker monsoon current over the Bay of Bengal.

“It revived becoming stronger gradually from 25 June onwards with the development of an upper air cyclonic circulation over central and adjoining north Bay of Bengal in middle tropospheric levels,” the IMD said in the statement.

At the same time, the Southwest Monsoon current over the Arabian Sea also strengthened with an increase in wind speed and strengthening of the offshore west coast trough. An east-west Shear Zone lay across northern peninsular India at the middle troposphere.

“The above situation continued on 26th June and 27th June leading to strong southeasterly winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal towards Northwest India. The upper air cyclonic circulation which developed in the middle tropospheric levels extended from surface to middle tropospheric levels over Westcentral & adjoining Northwest Bay of Bengal on 27th June,” IMD forecasters said.

Under the influence of the circulation, a low-pressure area formed over the northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining north Odisha-Gangetic West Bengal coasts at midnight of June 27 which further enhanced the advection of warm and moist air from the Bay of Bengal towards Northwest India including Delhi.

An anticyclone lay centered to the northeast of Delhi at the height of nine to 12 km (7.4 miles) above mean sea level and provided strong upper-level divergence which supported lower-level convergence of wind, it also added

“Under such large scale monsoonal synoptic weather systems prevailing over the region, the mesoscale 10 to 100 km size convective activity occurred over Delhi NCR leading to intense thunderstorm and heavy rainfall activity during early hours of 28th June.

“This mesoscale activity was supported by thermodynamic instability in the atmosphere favorable for thunderstorms,” IMD said.

References:

¹ Heavy rainfall activity over Delhi NCR during early hours of 28th June 2024 – IMD – June 28, 2024

² IMD alert- Mausam IMD – June 29, 2024

³ Delhi monsoon mayhem: Record rain in 88 years wreaks havoc, eight dead – The Indian Express – June 29, 2024

_⁴ Delhi rain chaos: Control room opened, labourers trapped by wall collapse, man electrocuted on waterlogged road – The Indian Express – June 29, 2024

⁵ Set-up emergency control room, call back officials on leave, L-G orders in eventuality of excessive rainfall in Delhi – The Indian Express – June 28, 2024

Featured image credit: BTV Bharat (stillshot)