Hyderabad: For the second consecutive day, heavy rain lashed Hyderabad on Thursday, battering several localities and throwing normal life out of gear. According to data from the Telangana Development Planning Society (TDPS), the city recorded significant rainfall, with Bahadurpura topping the charts. The Chandulal Baradari area near Zoo Park logged 86 mm of rain, followed by Chandulal Baradari Sports Complex at Doodbowli with 83.8 mm, and Roopal Bazar Community Hall in Charminar zone with 77.3 mm.Other high-rainfall zones included Sardar Mahal (68.3 mm), LB Stadium in Gunfoundry (67 mm), Begum Bazar (66.8 mm), and Kapra (62.5 mm). Several parts of Nampally, Khairatabad, Asifnagar, and Alwal also received upwards of 50 mm, placing most of the city under the “heavy rainfall” category.The intensity of the downpour left major stretches inundated. Roads in Bahadurpura, Malakpet, Goshamahal, and Nampally were submerged, with water entering residential colonies in pockets of Asifnagar and Begumpet. In Musheerabad, residents of Talla Basthi were seen wading through waist-deep water.“By 6:30 pm, our lane looked like a stream. We couldn’t step out without rolling our trousers and holding our shoes in hand,” said M Prakash, a resident of Vijayanagar Colony, which recorded 54.5 mm of rain. While the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) deployed emergency response teams, residents said the relief was temporary. “The water recedes only after three to four hours. Until then, we are cut off,” added Naseema Begum from Alwal’s Ambedkar Nagar.The evening rush turned chaotic as rainwater gushed into underpasses and arterial roads. Long snarls were reported at Old City, Mehdipatnam, Khairatabad, Banjara Hills, and Lakdi-ka-pul, with vehicles inching forward for hours. Commuters travelling from Secunderabad to Balanagar were stuck in gridlocks that stretched several kilometres.“Normally it takes me 40 minutes to get home from Khairatabad to Bowenpally, but today it was close to three hours. I was completely drenched by the time I reached,” said Saket V, a UPSC aspirant, who was returning home from his classes. Another commuter, Namratha V, a bank official who was stranded near Begum Bazar for over an hour, said, “The worst part is not just the waterlogging but the unpredictability. We don’t know which stretch will get flooded next. Every year, it’s the same problem.”Areas like Kapra (62.5 mm), Bandlaguda (60.8 mm), and Quthbullapur (51.3 mm) also reported flooding in low-lying colonies, with citizens stuck in jams for hours. In Jubilee Hills and Shaikpet, where rainfall measured between 44 mm to 47 mm, drainage overflow forced motorists to abandon two-wheelers on the roadside.Traffic police had to divert vehicles at multiple points, including Nampally and Charminar, where knee-deep water made roads impassable. The situation worsened after sunset as visibility dipped amid continuous rain.Meteorologists attributed the city’s relentless rainfall to moisture-laden winds interacting with local weather conditions. Officials warned that more spells were likely in the coming days. “Light to moderate rains are expected in coming days. It is advisable that residents stay alert in vulnerable areas,” added an official from IMD.Heaviest downpour in five yearsOn Wednesday night, the city was pounded by its heaviest spell of rain in the past five years in a cloudburst-like downpour that brought large parts of Hyderabad to a grinding halt.Data from the Telangana Development Planning Society (TGDPS) revealed that Musheerabad bore the brunt, with 184.5 mm at Talla Basthi community hall, followed by 174.8 mm at MCH Colony and 155.5 mm near Musheerabad police station. The last time the city witnessed a comparable deluge was on Oct 17, 2020, when 170 mm was recorded.Several other neighbourhoods were also lashed by extraordinary showers—Monda Market in Secunderabad (146.8 mm), University of Hyderabad in Serilingampally (144.8 mm), and New Mettuguda primary school in Marredpally area (140.5 mm). In all, 10 locations across the city recorded more than 130 mm within just a few hours—rainfall levels that meteorologists described as rare and alarming in this time of the year.Unlike the extreme rain episodes of 2020 and 2021, which were linked to deep depressions in the Bay of Bengal, Wednesday’s deluge had no such origin. “There was no depression this time. Instead, high surface heat combined with moisture and wind convergence triggered the thunderstorms. Such conditions are increasingly common with shifting weather patterns,” explained Balaji Tarini, popularly known as ‘Telangana weatherman’.Hyderabad has already seen a few extreme downpours in recent years — 150 mm on Aug 4 this year, 130 mm four days later, and 130 mm again on Aug 22 last year. Met experts said Wednesday’s spell was on another scale altogether. “What happened was exceptional, both in intensity and concentration,” Tarini added.Senior meteorologist YV Rama Rao of TGDPS agreed that the scale was unusual for an inland city. “For Hyderabad to receive over 180 mm in just a few hours is highly unusual. Such figures are comparable to coastal rainfall during cyclones, which highlights the growing unpredictability of inland weather systems. With rapid urbanisation and shrinking water channels, the city’s vulnerability is only increasing. Hyderabad must plan for cloudburst-like scenarios. Extreme weather is no longer an exception but a recurring trend,” he warned.Civic officials acknowledged that the absence of an early warning aggravated the crisis. “Since this rainfall was not linked to a depression, forecasts were available only at the last minute. This left little scope for advance preparedness,” said an official from HYDRAA.
