Thunderstorms bring relief from heat in city

Lucknow: The city woke up to a pre-dawn thunderstorm accompanied by rain and gusty winds of up to 40 kmph on Sunday, bringing much-needed relief from sultry conditions and keeping temperatures below normal through the day.

According to officials of the India Meteorological Department, Lucknow, the change in weather was triggered by an interaction between hot westerly winds from Rajasthan and moisture-laden easterlies from the Bay of Bengal. This led to the formation of a low-pressure system, resulting in rainfall across the state capital and nearby areas.

Officials at IMD said the sky is likely to remain partly cloudy, with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers expected over the next two days. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 31 degrees Celsius and 23 degrees Celsius, respectively. They also warned of thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds, with speeds of 40-50 kmph, gusting up to 60 kmph, at several places in the state.

IMD Lucknow senior scientist Mohammad Danish said the state is likely to witness further spells of rain and thunderstorms in the coming days due to an approaching western disturbance from the Mediterranean region towards Pakistan and Punjab. At the same time, a low-pressure system is moving from southern parts of UP towards the northeast, which is expected to trigger intermittent thundershowers across the state.

Meanwhile, temperatures remained high in Bundelkhand with Orai recording the highest temperature in the state at 41 degrees Celsius, about two degrees above normal. Banda, which has been among the hottest places in recent days, recorded 40.4 degrees Celsius, around two degrees below normal, while Jhansi followed closely at 40.3 degrees Celsius, about 1.5 degrees below normal.

In contrast, Gorakhpur recorded lowest maximum temperature in the state at 29.2 degrees Celsius, nearly nine degrees below normal.