India celebrates 60th Independence Day

New Delhi, Aug 15: A bright sunlit sky and a humid weather that welcomed people of Delhi as they ringed in the 60th Independence day of India.

A day after a heavily overcast sky and a sudden burst of heavy showers provided some relief from the warm and humid weather of the last week, it was back to bright sunlight and humid conditions with a sharp rise in humidity level upto 95 per cent this morning.

The sultry weather had hundreds, who had descended here for the celebration of the 60th Independence Day at the historic Red Fort perspiring. Those gathered at the precincts of the Red Fort, to listen to the Independence Day address by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were seen perspiring under the warm and humid weather.

What made the weather further unbearable was the absence of cool breeze which could mitigate the sultry weather conditions.

The humid weather this morning was a sharp contrast from the cool weather yesterday following the brief spell of heavy rainfall. The heavy showers and the accompanying squall yesterday had brought about a sharp drop in mercury.

The weathermen, however, forecast rain and thundershowers later in the day.

Weathermen said yesterday morning's well marked low pressure area over East Madhya Pradesh and neighbourhood now lies over central Madhya Pradesh&neighbourhood. The system is likely to move slowly in west-northwesterly direction.

Under its influence, widespread and heavy to very heavy rain falls at a few places and isolated extremely heavy falls (25 cms or more) are likely over southwest Madhya Pradesh during next 24 hours.

Fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls are also likely over northwest Madhya Pradesh, north Marathawada, north Madhya Maharashtra and southeast Rajasthan during the same period which in turn could result in rainfall in other parts of Northwest India, including Delhi.

UNI