Sudden storm, heavy rains hit Delhi-NCR; Flight, Metro Operations put on hold

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New Delhi, May 13, 2018 (ANI): Residents of Delhi-NCR were caught by surprise on Sunday evening when a sudden dust storm accompanied with lightning struck the capital region resulting in severe traffic disruptions. Ten flights were diverted from the Delhi airport while Metro services were also hampered.

Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad witnessed strong winds, thunder and rain, bringing the temperatures down by a few degrees. In a sudden change of weather, the sky turned cloudy around 4:30 pm and gusty winds swept the city.

DMRC has said that it will review the situation again at 6:25pm while operations on the Blue and Magenta lines were affected. Underground metro operations continued at a reduced speed owing to the strong winds.

According to ANI, the storm disrupted an event at IP Extension that was being attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal when the winds blew off parts of the stage.

Flight operations at Delhi’ IGI Airport has been put on hold. DIAL said 10 flights have been diverted so far as no aircraft were allowed to land in Delhi in the past half an hour and it will take an hour to normalise operations after the wind speed gets better.

The temperature was on Sunday recorded at 30.6 degrees Celsius. The humidity was recorded at 60 per cent at 8:30 am, a Meteorological department official said.

The IMD had earlier issued a thunderstorm and dust storm warning for Uttar Pradesh saying strong winds of up to 70 km per hour are "very likely" in 26 districts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had also predicted Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh would witness thunderstorm accompanied by squall. It had also forecast parts of Rajasthan might see dust storm.

On May 9, several parts of Uttar Pradesh 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 UP, Rajasthan, Telangana, Utttarakhand and Punjab. UP was the worst affected, accounting for 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district in the western part of the state.