Heavy rains cool Delhi, mercury drop to 34 deg C

New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) After a lull in rainfall over the last few days, the rain Gods today showered their bounty over Delhi with heavy showers lashing the city this afternoon, providing Delhiites relief from the warm and humid weather conditions over the past few days.

The showers, which followed a heavily overcast sky since morning, hit the city around 1600 hours. The showers, accompanied by a thunderstorm, brought the mercury down in the city by several degrees Celsius.

The maximum temperature dropped, from 36 degrees Celsius yesterday, to 34 degrees Celsius. The minimum was recorded at 26.5 degree Celsius.

The heavy intensity of rain was evident from the fact that a total of 38.2 mm rainfall was recorded till 1730 hours.

While bringing coolness to the city, the showers also threw life in the city out of gear, causing traffic jams and waterlogging in several areas.

Traffic jams were witnessed on the Nizamuddin crossing, the Ashram crossing, ITO crossing, Model Town and Ghazipur. Further, complaints of waterlogging were recieved from several areas.

More spells of rainfall are expected in the coming days with weathermen forecasting rain and thundershowers at many places in northwest India during the next two to three days.

Weekend could also witness some heavy rainfall with weathermen forecasting formation of a low pressure area over northwest India.

''A fresh low pressure area is likely to form over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal around August 9,'' the Met office said.

The Met office has forecast a generally cloudy sky in Delhi during the next 24 hours with one or two heavy spells of rainfall.

UNI AR SP GC1805