From hills to coasts: Severe weather alert issued across India—what travellers should expect

The new weather update dated May 3 (20:02 IST) indicates a tough week for the travelling community in the whole of India, as various weather phenomena lead to rain, thunderstorms, gusty winds, and localized disturbances in several areas.As per the predictions, the active western disturbance along with the presence of some cyclonic circulations and troughs are expected to bring in unstable weather throughout India, thereby posing challenges to the travelling community especially in the hill stations, northeastern region, and coastal areas.Frequent rainfall, thunderstorms, and even hail storms are anticipated in many of the hill stations of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand during this week. The gusty winds blowing at 50 kmph speed along with heavy downpour in Uttarakhand on May 4 might cause inconvenience to travelling by road.Thunderstorms and thundersqualls with winds up to 70 kmph are predicted to occur until May 6.May 4 dust storms may hamper visibility and road trips.The most violent weather activity can be observed in the northeast region, where states such as Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura are expected to witness extensive rainfall, thunderstorms, and sporadic heavy rains until May 5.Eastern regions like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand will have thunderstorms, hailstorms, and gusty winds at the start of the week, after which it will remain rainy. The sub-Himalayan areas of West Bengal and Sikkim will have heavy rainfall until May 5.Scattered thunder showers along with gusty winds or even thundersqualls are predicted in the regions of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Vidarbha. Although it may not rain continuously, unexpected changes in weather conditions can impact road journeys.In South India, states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh are forecasted to experience prolonged thunder storms coupled with heavy rainfall during the week ahead.Early in the week, there may be thundersqualls and winds that reach up to speeds of 70 kmph in coastal Andhra Pradesh. Also, heavy rainfall is expected to persist in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for days to come.Beach goers or those planning hill station vacations in the Western Ghats should expect some delays and possible showers en route.Although the primary focus remains on rains, the temperature levels in northwest India may take a brief fall only to climb higher later in the week.On the other hand, high temperatures accompanied by humidity are expected in some parts of Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh at the beginning of the week, while the same will be seen in Konkan and Goa towards the latter half.Possible effects could include water logging, traffic snarls, poor visibility, and local flooding. The occurrence of landslides in mountainous areas and damage from high wind speeds is also possible.Rain is expected to prevail across Northeast India and eastern regions, while scattered weather events would occur across North and South India.With such diverse regions experiencing different weather conditions, flexibility in plans is advised for a stress-free trip this week.