Hyderabad chills with hail and showers

Sudden showers, strong winds and dark clouds not just brought respite from the scorching heat in Hyderabad, but also fearful memories of urban flooding and traffic jams.
Cops help GHMC staff remove the uprooted trees near Genpact office in Uppal
Cops help GHMC staff remove the uprooted trees near Genpact office in Uppal

HYDERABAD: Sudden showers, strong winds and dark clouds not just brought respite from the scorching heat in Hyderabad, but also fearful memories of urban flooding and traffic jams. Thundershowers and hail lashed parts of the city on Sunday. Along with it, it brought down electric poles and trees in a few areas. In few low-lying places, roads were inundated with water.

An RTC bus gets stuck in the water-logged
underpass, at Mettuguda  | Express

Water stagnated close to two feet at Ravindra Nagar colony near Habsiguda. Hail showers were reported in LB Nagar, Uppal, Habsiguda, Malkajgiri, Moula Ali and Begumpet. At various places like Uppal crossroads, cops chipped in to clear uprooted trees and waded into the inundated water to ease the flow of traffic.

The temperature plummeted to a pleasant 25-27 degree Celsius in the city. Some places like Moula Ali and Saroornagar recorded as low as 20 degree Celsius.

Not just in the city, showers were reported across district. Highest rainfall was recorded at 50mm in Atmakur, Suryapet district.

Many people took to social media to post pictures and videos of hail accompanied by gusty winds and thundershowers, praising the change in weather conditions from sweltering hot to pleasant, breezy and wet.  

However, there was not much change in the maximum temperatures in the city. As per IMD, it was recorded at 38 degree Celsius, which is one degree Celsius above normal. But TSDPS recorded a maximum temperature of 36.3 degree Celsius in Begumpet and 39.4 degree Celsius in Charminar. Thundershowers were witnessed in other parts of the State as well, especially in the districts of Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Yadadri, Jangaon, Bhupalpally, Karimnagar and Sircilla.

An advertisement banner in tatters on Necklace
road after strong winds and rain lashed the
city | R Satish Babu

In some places, including Bhadrachalam, Hakimpet, Hanmakonda and Nalgonda the maximum temperatures were recorded below normal. The highest rainfall was recorded at 50mm in Atmakur, Suryapet district. Highest temperature was recorded at 40.6 degree Celsius in Jagtial district. RTC bus with 50 people on-board gets stuck in water-logged underpass

HYDERABAD: About 50 people had a heart-in-the-mouth moment under the Mettuguda Bridge, when the RTC bus they were travelling in, got stuck in the water-logged underpass.
Traffic police personnel had a tough time trying to pull the bus out, as the vehicle that was supposed to do the job almost got stranded in the same way. After a struggle of about 40 minutes, the bus crawled out of the water, with all the passengers safe.

When contacted Gopalapuram traffic inspector Mohammed Majeed to learn more about the matter, he said: “The GHMC has taken up works of advancing the water pipelines under the bridge. The underpass got waterlogged as there was no outflow for water. While the GHMC officials were trying to get rid of the stagnated water, an RTC bus heading towards Tarnaka got stuck with around 50 passengers. We tried
to pull the bus out using a crane, but it also got stuck for a while.”

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