Two pedestrians get drenched in the downpour on Frazer Road in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, May 26: Rani Sharma, a student of Arvind Mahila College, was planning to go to a hill station to escape the heat. But she shelved her plan following morning showers today.

“The scorching heat in the day time was unbearable. It continued to be hot in the evenings. The rain will surely make a difference,” Rani said.

“It was so hot over the past couple of days that I told my father to plan a trip to a hill station for my summer vacation. But now I have asked him to drop the plan,” she added.

The rain this morning brought smiles to Patna residents, who had suffered intolerable heat for the past two days. Several people stepped outdoors to enjoy the cool weather.

Boring Road resident Rahul Sharma said: “As it was so hot outside, we preferred to stay indoors in the past few days. We were not going to the park to play with our friends. But because of the rainfall today, we can enjoy playing here.”

He was enjoying a game of cricket with his friends at SK Puri Park when The Telegraph caught up with him today.

Though the rain did not last for more than half-an-hour, the weather continued to be pleasant and it was quite windy in the evening.

There is more rain in store. The Met department officials claimed that the weather could be windy for the next few days, and there is a possibility of thundershower tomorrow.

P.K. Das, duty officer, Patna Met department, said the light rain (10.4mm) brought down the temperature to 24°C, six degrees below normal.

“The rain brought some relief to the people,” Das said.

He added that the weather would continue to be windy for the next few days and there is a possibility of thunder and rain tomorrow.

The commuters had a tough time after showers, though. The vehicles crawled though there were no major disruptions. The brief spell of rain exposed the lack of preparedness of authorities for the rains and the poor condition of the drainage system. There was waterlogging in areas like Machua Toli, Lohanipur, Kadamkuan, Dariyapur and Bakerganj.

District downpour

The residents of Gaya, too, found relief from the scorching heat of the past couple of days after an hour-long downpour this morning.

Most of the residents were pleasantly surprised to find the skies overcast, and stepped outdoors to enjoy the shower that started around 10.30am and lasted till 11.30am. Sources in the Met office said 15.4mm rainfall was recorded in Gaya today. The maximum temperature recorded today was 37.4°C, while yesterday it was 41.3°C.

The rainfall led to waterlogging in many areas of the town, including Durga Bari, Ramsagar (East and West), Chand Chaura, Makhlautganj, Bangala Asthan, Bairagi, Tekari Road, Purani Godown and even the Gaya Collectortate campus.

A councillor of Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) Laljee Prasad told The Telegraph that cleaning of drains would be done before the onset of monsoon to prevent waterlogging. GMC had issued tenders for cleaning of several drains and the work at many places would begin soon, he added.