A dust storm accompanied by squall hit the national capital on May 13 after a scorching hot morning.
In a sudden change of weather, the sky turned cloudy around 4.30 p.m. and gusty winds swept the city.
The temperature was recorded at 30.6°C. The humidity was recorded at 60% at 8.30 a.m., a weather department official said.
The Met office has forecast light rains will follow the dust storm.
The India Meteorological Department on May 12 forecast thunderstorm accompanied by squall in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. It had also forecast parts of Rajasthan might witness dust storm.
Thunderstorm over these hill States and its subsequent effect on plains in North India is due to a new western disturbance, the IMD had said.
“Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds are also very likely at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Vidharbha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, south interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Kerala,” the IMD had said in an advisory said.
Warning issued for 26 U.P. districts
Meanwhile, the weather office has warned that thunderstorm and dust storm with wind speeds of up to 70 km per hour were “very likely” on May 14 in 26 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
It said the districts that could be affected are: Bahraich, Shrawasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Azamgargh, Ambedkar Nagar, Mau, Deoria, Ballia, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Pratapgargh, Allahabad, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra.
The IMD has also forecast rain in isolated parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and said the weather is most likely to remain dry in western U.P.
On May 9, several parts of the State were hit by a severe storm that left 18 dead and 27 others injured. Five people died in Etawah district, three each in Mathura, Aligarh and Agra, two in Firozabad and one each in Hathras and Kanpur Dehat.
Thunderstorms and lightning on May 2-3 killed 134 people and injured over 400 in U.P., Rajasthan, Telangana, Utttarakhand and Punjab. U.P. was the worst affected, accounting for 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district.
