A commuter drives his car along a flooded highway after heavy monsoon rains in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi on July 9, 2023. Photo by AFP
India is facing the prospect of further torrential rainfall across swathes of the country over the coming days, increasing the risk of widespread damage after the wettest New Delhi day in four decades on Sunday left millions wading through knee-deep water.
Across the nation’s north, 19 people have been killed in the deluge, according to Press Trust of India. On social media, users shared dramatic footage of landslides, flash floods tearing through villages and rivers raging in Himachal Pradesh, one of the worst-hit states. In the country’s capital, shared images showed city streets turned into fast-moving waterways.
Safdarjung Observatory, the main weather station in Delhi, recorded 153 millimeters (roughly 6 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Sunday, the highest for a single day in July since 1982, raising water levels in the Yamuna River. It prompted the state to shut schools, while local officials sought to evacuate those living near the water.
"As per our calculations, it seems that by tomorrow morning, the water level of river Yamuna will cross the danger mark,” Atishi Marlena, Delhi’s Public Works Department Minister, said on Monday. "We are monitoring the flow of water in case the rainfall continues.”
The India Meteorological Department has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next two days in most parts of northern India, including the Western Himalayan region, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The weather agency has issued a red alert for Himachal Pradesh and a yellow alert for Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
India is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with altering weather patterns making extreme events more frequent and even regular monsoons, vital to the nation’s agriculture, harder to predict. July’s deluge follows months of blistering heat. India has seen maximum temperatures reach above 45C (113F) for at least eight consecutive years through 2023, weather department data shows.
