Season’s ‘ worst’ dust storm brings relief from sticky heat
RAIN, SQUALL At IGI Airport, visibility drops to 300m, worst conditions since ’02
NEW DELHI: The season’s “worst dust storm” hit Delhi on Saturday evening, bringing visibility at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport to around 300 metres, which Met officials said were the worst conditions caused by a dust storm in the city since 2002.
“The visibility dropped from 3.5km at about 4:50pm to around 300m by 5:30pm. This is was the lowest visibility we have encountered since 2002 in any dust storm. Usually the visibility ranges between 500 metres and 800 metres during a severe dust storm. At least 29 flights had to be diverted on Saturday. This is the worst dust storm we have had this season as far as visibility is concerned,” said RK Jenamani, chief meteorologist, IMD, Delhi airport.
The city plunged into darkness around 5:30pm, as a monstrous cloud cell spanning over 100 square kilometre (sq km) passed over Delhi triggering the dust storm and squall. The squall hit Delhi with a maximum speed of 96km-per-hour followed by rain.
While Safdarjung received around 4.5mm rain till 8:30pm, Palam recorded around 27.3mm of rain. The storm lasted for around 45 minutes, though the drizzle continued till late into the evening in most areas.
While the maximum temperature had shot up to 40.1 degrees Celsius earlier in the day, it dropped to around 33.6 degrees soon after the storm and rain.
“While the main thunderstorm passed over on Saturday evening, intermittent drizzle is expected to continue throughout the night. As almost entire NCR has received rain the day temperature is expected to remain below 40 degrees on Sunday,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist with the regional weather forecasting centre.
The relief however would be short-lived, as the mercury is expected to shoot up to around 43 degrees Celsius again by the middle of next week.
This season, since April, IGI Airport was hit by at least five severe dust storms resulting in diversion of 163 flights. If all dust storms, both strong and weak, are taken into account, then IGI had been hit by at least 16 storms since April. This is the highest since 2008. The dust storm that had hit Delhi on May 13 had resulted in 77 flight diversions.
Even though there were no reports of any injuries or casualties till reports last poured in, the Delhi Police received around 99 calls of branches falling off and trees being uprooted.
Police officials said at least 63 trees were uprooted across the city on Saturday. There were at least 39 calls in which residents complained about poles falling and around 13 calls regarding roof and wall collapse.
There were no major disruptions in services of Delhi Metro, though services in the Blue Line had to be regulated when the storm picked up speed.
Officials said the last time isolated patches in Delhi received traces of rain was on May 18.
Meanwhile, several instances of waterlogging were reported across NCR cities.
In Noida and Ghaziabad, several trees were uprooted during the squall, causing traffic bottlenecks, local officials said. A hoarding also fell in Noida’s Sector 50, but no one was injured.
Heavy instances of waterlogging were also reported from Gurugram. Residents also reported many trees falling due to the gusty winds. No injuries were reported.