Thunderstorm, rain hit flights in Delhi
WET THURSDAY Max temp drops by 6 degrees to 19.1°C but min temp shoots up to 15°C; night chill may be back
NEWDELHI: Rain, hail and thunderstorm, accompanied by strong winds of up to 40km per hour, lashed Delhi Thursday, pulling down the day temperature by six degrees to 19.1 degrees Celsius since Wednesday.
The bad weather also disrupted flight schedules at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). The cloudy sky, however, pushed up the minimum temperature to 15 degrees Celsius, snatching away the chill factor at night. Heavy hail was reported from across Delhi and adjoining NCR towns of Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD)’S observatories at Palam and Safdarjung, though, didn’t see any hail. Fresh hail hit some parts of Delhi, including Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Thursday evening.
At least 36 incoming flights to Delhi were diverted and about 200 flights were delayed at IGIA following hailstorm and heavy rain.
The airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said of the 36 planes diverted between 6pm and 9pm, 24 were domestic, nine International, two general aviation and one air force . “The flights were diverted to Jaipur, Lucknow, Amritsar, Varanasi and Indore,” DIAL said.
The weather also delayed at least 200 departing flights at the airport, leaving hundreds of fliers stranded.
Officials said many flights were delayed also owing to bad weather at destination airports.
“The lag is expected to improve overnight as frequency of departures and arrivals decreases during the night,” the officer said, adding that they have made arrangements to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
The IMD has forecast that the sky is expected to clear up from Friday. This would lead to a drastic drop in the night temperature over the next two days.
“A western disturbance had formed a cyclonic circulation over Haryana. This helped the moisture laden winds from both the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea to gush in and trigger rain and hail across Delhi and NCR. The rain would cease on Friday,” BP Yadav, deputy director general, IMD, said.
The day temperature, which was hovering above 25 degrees Celsius Wednesday, dropped to 19.1 degrees Thursday because of rain and strong winds. It was four degrees below normal, weatherman said.
The night temperature shot up to 15 degrees Celsius Thursday, which was six degrees above normal. Till 5.30pm Thursday, Delhi recorded around 3.2mm rain.
“Once the sky clears up, the night temperature is expected to drop sharply. It could come down to 7 degrees Celsius by Saturday,” an IMD official said. The rain and strong winds also helped to clean up the city’s air, which was reeling under heavy pollution over the past two days. While the air quality index, as recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board, remained above 350 on Tuesday and Wednesday, it dropped to 176 Thursday.