An orange alert, indicating that authorities should be prepared to take action, has been issued for Delhi on Thursday and the India Meteorological Department has predicted rain and strong winds in the city, reported NDTV.

At 1.45 pm on Thursday, the weather department predicted that thunderstorms and light to moderate rain will occur at Delhi and adjoining areas in the next two hours. These areas include Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandshahr and Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh; and Karnal, Jind and Sonipat in Haryana.

The city recorded 403 millimetres of rainfall for September, according to PTI. This is the highest amount of precipitation recorded for the month since 1944, when 417.3 millimetres of rain was reported.

On Thursday morning, light to moderate rainfall was recorded in several parts of the national Capital.

“Rain was reported in Noida, Faridabad and eastern and central parts of Delhi,” an official at private weather forecasting agency Skymet told NDTV. “Tomorrow we expect some change in rain intensity around Delhi-NCR region.”

Moderate rain is expected over the next two days in Delhi, which means that the city may attain another record during this monsoon season, a weather department official told News18.

“On and off rains will continue till September 23 to 24, which means Delhi may record its second-wettest monsoon ever by the time it withdraws,” Mahesh Palawat, vice president of Skymet Weather told PTI.

On an average, Delhi records 653.6 millimetres of rainfall every year between June 1 and September 15. The southwest monsoon generally withdraws from the Capital by September 25.

In 2019, Delhi had received below average rainfall, at 404 millimetres in the entire monsoon, according to PTI.

This year, the city has received 1159.4 millimetres of rainfall in the monsoon till Thursday afternoon – the highest since 1964.

Meanwhile, the IMD on Thursday said that the north west part of India will witness scattered to widespread rains over next two to three days.

A low-pressure formation, which usually brings heavy rains to an area, was seen over Madhya Pradesh. It is likely to move towards west-northwestwards over the next two days.

The weather department also said that a cyclonic circulation could develop over the northern region of Bay of Bengal by Friday.

These conditions are likely to bring widespread and very heavy rain to Gujarat, West Madhya Pradesh, East Uttar Pradesh and East Rajasthan till Friday. Therefore, rainfall will increase in Odisha and West Bengal by Saturday.

Six dead due to heavy rain in Odisha

Till Thursday, six people had died in Odisha due to heavy rainfall, the Hindustan Times reported. The state has received 153 millimetres of rain in just three days.

The heavy rain has affected 2.3 million people, damaged 7,500 houses and inundated 1.30 lakh hectares of agricultural land in 24 districts of Odisha, the state’s Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena told the Hindustan Times.

Two Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force teams and one National Disaster Response Force team have evacuated 20,552 residents from villages that were battered by the rain.

Jena also said that the Mahanadi river, which flows from the northern part of Odisha, was expected to be moderately flooded as 28 gates of the Hirakud reservoir in Sambalpur district had been opened.