New Delhi, September 16
Heavy rains and strong winds disrupted air traffic at the Delhi airport for almost four hours. It was only in the afternoon, with the wind speed coming down gradually, that the incoming flights eventually started landing.
The gusty winds allowed only large and heavy aircrafts to land at the airport. The weather is likely to remain the same in Delhi and the adjoining areas till about tomorrow afternoon.
The high wind speed led to the diversion of a large number of flights, including the one carrying Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat from Jaipur and two international flights of Lufthansa and Britain’s Virgin Atlantic, that had to be diverted to Lahore.
Over 20 other incoming domestic flights were diverted to various cities.
As the monsoon continues with its boistrous and belated revival up north, the Met Department chief, Bhukan Lal, said rains during September were quite normal and unlikely to have any adverse effect on most of the crops in the region.
Another low-pressure area has formed over the Bay of Bengal. Though India Meteorological Department (IMD) models are not yet predicting its movement towards the north-west, weather experts feel that it will eventually move towards west Madhya Pradesh, resulting in another spell of good rainfall over Central India. Its associated easterlies will result in intermittent rains up north between September 17 and 21.
Monsoon activity during September is said to be quite normal and not attributed to any reason such as climate change. Incidentally, the rainfall deficiency in the region has settled close to 18 per cent now, well within the normal range.
As per Dr Lal, the monsoon withdrawal date from the region is September 21.
