Heavy Rain Forces Diversion of 15 Flights at Delhi Airport; IMD Issues Red Alert in Capital City

New Delhi: Fifteen flights bound for New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport had to be diverted on Monday as the capital city experienced a spell of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms, according to reports.

The disruption followed a bout of intense showers across the city, which brought welcome relief from the humid conditions of the previous day, though it also left several areas waterlogged.

Delhi recorded rainfall ranging from 18 mm to 28 mm by 11.30 am on Monday, with Chhatarpur in the city's south registering the day's highest total. The India Meteorological Department issued red and orange alerts warning of heavy to moderate rain accompanied by thunderstorms and strong winds across multiple zones, including South East, East, Shahdara, Central, North East, South, New Delhi and North Delhi, with isolated pockets of heavy rain also expected in the South West, West and North West regions.

Data from the preceding 24 hours, recorded up to 8.30 am Monday, showed Janakpuri receiving the highest rainfall at 29 mm, followed by Narayana at 22 mm, Pusa at 11.5 mm, Palam at 10.6 mm and Safdarjung at 3.4 mm. Lodi Road logged 2.7 mm, while Ridge, Ayanagar and Jharoda Kalan recorded smaller amounts of 0.8 mm, 0.6 mm and 0.5 mm respectively. Chhatarpur and Pushp Vihar reported no rainfall during this period, while figures from Mayur Vihar, Jafarpur and Najafgarh were not available.

Delhi's benchmark weather station at Safdarjung has now logged 246.2 mm of rain across 12 rainy days this August as of the 24th, comfortably exceeding the month's long-period average of 226.8 mm. This threshold was officially crossed on August 14, following a stretch of continuous rain.

The single wettest day recorded so far this August came on the 8th, when Safdarjung logged 98.7 mm of rainfall within 24 hours.

Even with this year's total comfortably above normal, it still trails the unusually high rainfall figures of recent years — Delhi saw 400.8 mm in August 2025 and 390.3 mm in August 2024.