Day virtually turned into night as darkness in the form of heavy ominous clouds invaded the Capital on Tuesday in the middle of an unusually bright afternoon. Strong winds laced with thick dust blew relentlessly across the city for several minutes before giving way to thunder and lighting and then finally some rain that lasted for close to half-an-hour.
Around 6.6 mm of rain was recorded by 5-30 p.m., a high dose of rainfall as October for the most part receives on an average 10 mm of rainfall. “There was nothing unusual about today’s weather development. The rain though atypical for this time of the year is not otherwise surprising and is due to western disturbances,” said an India Metrological Department duty officer.
The day had started out exceedingly bright, but at about 1 -30 p.m. on Tuesday, the skyline suddenly started to look slightly overcast. By 2 p.m., the clouds were proper grey and by 3 p.m. the day had turned dark. The average citizen was caught unawares in the middle of the sudden darkness and the relentless dust. Vehicle-owners unfortunate to be out on the road had to turn on the headlights with some choosing to stop by the wayside and weather out the storm.
Traffic was naturally slow with the Moolchand to Dhaula Kuan Ring Road reporting hold-ups along with major intersections in other parts of the Capital. The ongoing Dussehra celebrations also slowed down vehicular traffic in some pockets of the city like the road linking Nehru Place to IIT Delhi.
Although, the air was especially chilly after the downpour, official report from the weatherman which put the minimum temperature at 17.4 degrees Celsius and the maximum at 31.8 degrees Celsius – also stated that this temperature was completely normal for this time of the year.
The Met Department also said that the temperature would be a maximum of 30 degrees and a minimum of 17 degrees on Wednesday.
As for a repeat of Tuesday’s strange storm, the weatherman was not very sure. “It will be a partly cloudy sky and there is the possibility of a thunder storm but the sky might also be clear,” added the IMD duty officer.
