Intense rain transforms roads into streams & brings traffc to standstill

Indore: After spending most of Friday under a blanket of dark clouds, the city witnessed a spell of intense rain that transformed roads into streams and brought evening traffic to a near standstill.The skies, which had remained heavily overcast throughout the day, finally opened up around 4:30 pm, with heavy rain lashing several parts of the city for nearly an hour.According to the meteorological observatory at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore recorded 60.5 mm of rainfall since morning till 8:30pm on Friday, while the eastern part of the city received around 20 mm during the same period.The airport observatory also reported 41.9 mm rainfall in the preceding 24 hours, taking the season’s cumulative rainfall to 279 mm.The evening shower quickly exposed the city’s vulnerable stretches. Waterlogging was reported from several areas, particularly in the western parts of Indore near the airport, where roads remained inundated long after the rain eased.Vehicles crawled through waterlogged intersections as two-wheelers and cars struggled with flooded roads. Commuters found themselves trapped in long traffic snarls across major roads as well as residential bylanes, turning the evening rush hour into a frustrating commute.

The persistent cloud cover also kept temperature well below normal. The maximum temperature settled at 30 degrees Celsius, three degrees below the seasonal average, while the minimum was recorded at 21.8 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal. Humidity remained exceptionally high throughout the day, rising from 92 % in the morning to 98 % by evening, creating ideal conditions for sustained rainfall. Visibility at 5:30 pm dropped to just 600 metres during the thunderstorm accompanied by rain.Met officials attributed the widespread rain to the continued strengthening of the southwest monsoon over central India. On Friday, the monsoon advanced across the remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh, supported by a low-pressure area over the northwest Bay of Bengal and an active seasonal trough extending across north Madhya Pradesh. Multiple upper air circulations and favourable atmospheric conditions are expected to keep the monsoon active over the region.The weather office has forecast a further drop of 2 to 3 degrees in mercury over the next two days, with rain activity likely to continue across Indore and surrounding districts under the influence of the active monsoon system.