5 killed in storm; air, road traffic badly hit
Winds at speeds of 109 kmph uproot 189 trees; over 70 flights diverted & 100 delayed.
New Delhi: Five people were killed in the NCR region in the sudden dust storm that hit the city on Sunday evening. It also disrupted road and air traffic.
Accompanied with lightning and showers hit the national capital and adjoining areas on Sunday evening led to closure of the IGI’s three runways for two-and-a-half hours from 4.30 pm. This apart, over 70 flights were diverted and 100 flights delayed, the highest in last 10 years for any bad weather related incident other than fog.
A woman died after a tree fell on her while she was walking at Delhi's Pandav Nagar area, while a similar death of a man was reported from Jaitpur area. Three people lost their lives to storm-related incidents at Greater Noida and Ghaziabad’s Lal Kuan area on Sunday evening.
Gusty winds with speed of 109 kmph and squall disrupted traffic in the city, even as flights were diverted from the Delhi airport between 4:30-6:30 pm and metro services were also hampered.
Delhiites woke up to a sunny morning with the mercury touching 40 degrees during the day but the sky turned cloudy around 4:30 pm.
The sudden change of weather in Delhi forced airport authorities to divert at least 10 domestic flights, an official said. Vistara's Srinagar-Delhi flight was diverted to Amritsar and its Lucknow-Delhi flight was sent to Lucknow due to the inclement weather.
Reportedly, the storm also disrupted an event at IP Extension that was being attended by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.The maximum temperature on Sunday was recorded at 40.8 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal for this part of the season and the minimum settled at 30.6 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal.
Humidity oscillated between 60 and 58 per cent. As per forecast, the maximum and minimum temperatures will hover around 38° C and 23° C. The India Meteorological Department had on Saturday predicted Uttarakhand, J&K and Himachal Pradesh would witness thunderstorm accompanied by squall. Its forecast said parts of Rajasthan might see dust storm. Thunderstorm over northern hill-states and its effect in the plains is due to a western disturbance.