Moderate intensity dust storm, rains sweep Delhi-NCR region; flights affected

New Delhi: A massive dust storm accompanied by heavy rain swept the national capital and the adjoining NCR region on Saturday evening, bringing relief to people from the intense heat. But it also affected the road traffic and flight movement by bringing the visibility almost down to zero.

The dust storm was accompanied with dark clouds and rains. Due to the thundershowers the temperature came down rapidly making the weather pleasant.

"The scorching sun was blotted out by the clouds and the weather cooled at around 2 PM. Soon after that, the city experienced a moderate - intensity storm," PTI quoted MeT officials as saying.

Speaking to news agency ANI, director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) BP Yadav said, "Storm in Delhi & NCR today was at speed of 84 km/hr, weather will be pleasant for next 2-3 days."

"Clouds will hover over parts of North and West India, rainfall will continue in coming days," he added.

After a dust storm and rains struck the capital city and nearby vicinities, Yadav said that the change in weather pattern was due to the excessive summer heat and harsh sun rays.

The national capital received 4.8 mm of rainfall till 5.30 PM, said the India Meteorological Department.

The Met Department also said that it expects the temperatures to drop further in the coming days.

Delhi, which has been recording day temperatures around 43°C, has also registered a drop in the maximum temperatures. At 3:00 PM the temperature was 39.2°C which came down to 28°C till 4:00 PM today.   

Today's maximum temperature was recorded at 39.7 degrees while the minimum settled at 29 degrees - both a notch above the season's average. The day's maximum humidity was recorded at 82 percent.

From past few days Delhi has been witnessing dust storms, which have travelled from Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, as per MeT officials.

According to Skymet Meteorology Division in India, it is the Western Disturbance over the hills along with the induced cyclonic circulation over south Rajasthan that has increased the pre-Monsoon activity over North India.

Meanwhile, one Delhi Police jawan was injured when he was hit by a flying object during the duststorm in Hauz Khaz area of the city. Separately, a man was severely hurt when an electric pole fell on him in Pool Mithai area of North Delhi, as per news agency ANI.

Due to heavy rains several areas of Delhi-NCR had to face water-logging problem and the traffic movement also got affected.

As per Delhi Police traffic, jams were reported from south Delhi's Adhchini Marg, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Dhaula Kuan as well as ITO, Minto Road underpass, and Azad Market in central Delhi. Traffic was brought to a crawl at several other places including Karol Bagh in central Delhi, Lakshmi Nagar in east Delhi and on many stretches of Ring Road.

Several two-wheeler riders took refuge under flyovers and foot-over-bridges adding to the woes of motorists as the parked scooters and motorcycles blocked a portion of the road.

A total of 16 flights -- 13 domestic and 3 international - coming into Delhi had to be diverted due to the bad weather, said sources at the Indira Gandhi International airport.

However, Saturday being a holiday, popular city hotspots like Connaught Place, India Gate, the three Dilli Haats along with the Delhi Zoo witnessed a rush of visitors who were eagerly awaiting showers for many days.

The sprawling lawns of India Gate were bustling with activity as people left the indoors for spontaneous picnics to make most of the pleasant weather.

(With Agency inputs)