Heavy rains lash Delhi-NCR: 15 flights cancelled, IMD issues red alert for more rain and thunderstorm

Delhi has barely recovered from Monday's downpour, and the weather is not done yet. The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for the national capital on Tuesday, with heavy to extremely heavy rain, thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds forecast across the city. The skies stayed heavily overcast through the morning.

At Indira Gandhi International Airport, flight tracking platform Flightradar24 recorded 15 cancellations and over 90 delays by Tuesday. Airport authorities had not issued an official statement on the operational situation at the time of writing.

What Monday looked like

The previous day's rain caused widespread disruption across Delhi-NCR. Roads flooded in multiple parts of the city and in Gurugram and Noida, bringing traffic to a crawl on major routes. At the airport, 26 flights were cancelled, 15 were diverted to other cities, and more than 390 were delayed, one of the more disruptive weather days the capital has seen this season.

Where the NCR stands on Tuesday

The IMD forecast for Tuesday includes moderate rain across most of Delhi, with isolated areas seeing heavy to extremely heavy showers. Gurugram and Faridabad have been placed under a yellow alert, with more rainfall expected through the day. Noida remains overcast but has not received a specific weather warning.

The rainfall picture so far

Delhi's rain totals this season are running well ahead of normal at most of the city's weather stations. Up to August 24, Safdarjung had received 246.2 mm against a normal of 191.1 mm, 29% above average. Palam stood at 227.2 mm, 28% above normal. Lodi Road recorded 233.2 mm, 22% more than expected. Ridge was 50% above its normal at 243 mm, while Ayanagar recorded the largest surplus, 266.3 mm, a full 66% above its seasonal average.

The IMD linked the intense rainfall to a weather system interaction: a middle- and upper-level western disturbance converging with a low-tropospheric trough extending from a low-pressure area over Gangetic West Bengal toward southwest Uttar Pradesh.