Patna, June 19: The residents of the city woke up this morning to overcast skies and a heavy downpour. For most, it was a perfect start to the Sunday. Some had to wade through knee-deep water, though.

Passengers of trains and planes scheduled to leave or arrive in the state capital were also affected by the vagaries of the rain gods.

Heavy rainfall lashed the state capital and most parts of Bihar today. According to the Patna Met department forecast, the capital could experience moderate rainfall and spells of thundershowers over the next 48 hours. Heavy rainfall could be experienced in parts of the state and Jharkhand.

Weathermen claimed that today was the wettest day this season. Patna Met department recorded 54.2mm rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm.

The reason for the uninterrupted downpour is a depression formed around 175km southeast of Daltonganj in Jharkhand.

Sources said the rain started on Saturday evening at 4.10pm. The showers yesterday were around 33.5mm.

Other parts of the state, too, received moderate rainfall.

Gaya was an exception. It experienced 93mm rainfall today.

While most spent a lazy weekend at home, those flying in or out of Patna had a trying time, as air traffic was badly hit by the weather conditions.

Sources at Patna airport said most of the flights got delayed today because of bad weather. The worst-hit were the flight scheduled in the first half of the day.

IndiGo’s Bangalore-bound (6E341) flight was diverted to Calcutta before landing at Patna airport because of the heavy rainfall. It finally reached Patna airport at 2.30pm. It was scheduled to land at Patna at 11.10am.

Passengers of the Mumbai-bound flight (S2721) of Jet Airways also had a hard time. The flight, which travels on the Mumbai-Ranchi-Patna route, had to take a circuitous route, thanks to the rain.

According to sources at Patna airport, the flight was diverted from Ranchi to Patna because of the inclement weather. It reached Patna airport at 8.40am for the first time and took off without any passenger on board. Then, the flight reached at Ranchi. Passengers got on the plane there and reached Patna airport at 12noon.

The scheduled arrival of the plane is 9.40am.

Rail hit

The schedule of several Patna-bound trains was thrown off track because of the weather. Some remained stranded for a few hours.

Sealdah-Varanasi Upper India Express (13133) was delayed by four hours. North East Express (12556) was late by two hours. While Mahananda Express (14084) was running late by three hours, Rajdhani Express (12310) chugged in an hour late.

Vikramshila Express (12367), too, was late by an hour.

Passengers of Sampoorna Kranti Express (12394) had to tolerate a delay of three hours.

Neeraj Ambastha, chief public relations officer, East Central Railway (ECR), said no train was cancelled because of rainfall but several of them were rescheduled, as the continuous rain since last night had disrupted their regular course. He also confirmed that the situation would become normal soon.