All in a day: 40°C, gusty winds & dust storm; ‘felt like the sky opened up', brief rainfall in parts of Gurgaon
Gurgaon: A sweltering summer day turned on its head as winds gusting up to 70kmph swept in on Wednesday night followed by a brief but intense spell of rainfall in parts of the city.
Parts of the city, including Udyog Vihar, were drenched in rain, but most of the city escaped the showers.
Commuters said they were caught off guard as winds stirred up clouds of dust, cloaking the city in haze around 8.20pm.
"It felt like the sky just opened up," said Radhika Saha, a Sector 41 resident who was going to her home. "One moment it was calm and the next, the wind was howling and dust was everywhere. I had to pull over because I couldn't see the road," she said.
Rain and duststorm, though shortlived, brought down temperatures.
"It was unbearably hot all day, but the cool breeze after the storm was such a relief," said Pooja Sharma, who was traveling from Cyber City.
"Even though I got drenched, I did not mind it at all," Sharma added.
The extreme weather condition, which started around 8pm, was due to a southward-moving convection. It lasted less than an hour, but in that hour, Safdarjung — the base weather station for the capital — recorded 12.1mm of rainfall.
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Mayur Vihar logged 13.5mm of rainfall, Pitampura 5mm and Palam, 2.1mm.
"There was a cyclonic circulation over Haryana embedded in an east-west trough from Punjab to Bangladesh in lower tropospheric levels. It was sucking moisture from both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, leading to the formation of convection clouds, which moved southwards," said Krishna Mishra, scientist, IMD.
Relief to be shortlived
The India Meteorological Department has issued orange alert to warn of a heatwave on Thusday and Friday.
Temperatures could touch 43 degrees Celsius, according to the forecast. On Wednesday, Gurgaon recorded maximum temperature at 40.8 degrees C and a minimum of 30.4 degrees Celsius, with 38% humidity. Doctors recommend staying indoors in the afternoons, drinking water, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol.
"Extreme heat can lead to serious health consequences, including heat exhaustion, dehydration, heatstroke and worsening of pre-existing illnesses, especially among the elderly, children and outdoor workers," said Dr Tushar Tayal, consultant for internal medicine at CK Birla Hospital.
3 killed in Delhi & Gzb
In Delhi, dust-laden winds approached 79kmph and brought heavy rainfall and hailstorm in several parts of the capital. Around 50 trees were uprooted or damaged, and motorists faced a harrowing time due to traffic gridlocks.
Two people were killed. At Nizamuddin, a differently abled man died when a light mast fell on his tricycle. At Gokalpuri, a man died when a tree fell on him.
At least 10 flights were diverted to Jaipur and Mumbai, while over 50 flights were delayed.
Delhi Metro services were also impacted due to external objects falling on the track on the Red, Yellow and Pink corridors. Services on the Pink Line were restored by 9.30pm, and the other a little later. Power supply was also disrupted in large parts of the city.
The intense rain spell and hailstorm led to a sudden fall in temperature by up to 14 degrees Celsius. The temperature at 7.30pm read 37 degrees Celsius, but an hour later, the mercury had fallen to 23 degrees Celsius.
The storm wrecked havoc in other NCR cities too.
A tree came crashing down on a biker, killing him on the spot near Pehalwan Dhabha on Hapur Chungi intersection in Ghaziabad. Motorists nearby had a narrow escape. A signboad collapsed on the CISF Road in Indirapuram, while a tree fell on the road leading to Hindon Civil Terminal from Mohan Nagar.
In Noida, two signboards collapsed near Golf Course metro station and Sector 142, hampering traffic movement on the Noida Expressway during the evening rush hour.
The weatherman has not predicted a respite, with both temperatures and humidity set to increase over the next few days. The feels-like temperature in Delhi reached 50.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, against 49.6 degrees Celsius the previous day. The heat index on Monday was 48.5 degrees Celsius, and on Sunday, 43.6 degrees C.
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