May weather in India

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This is a collection of articles, mainly from the Delhi- based press. Links to news items about the weather in other parts of India may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

This page is under construction. Data will continue to be added over the next several years. May

2nd May

13.2mm rain/ 38.3°C falls to 25°C, dust storm in Delhi: 2018

From The Times of India 3 May 2018

2018 Dust storm, sudden rain bring relief from heat

The capital saw a sudden dust storm followed by heavy rain that brought the mercury down by several notches.

The Safdarjung observatory, considered as the base for weather in the capital, received 13.2mm of rainfall between 5.30pm and 8.30 pm, while several other parts of the capital reported intense showers. Met officials said the rain was caused due to a cyclonic circulation forming over Haryana, which also resulted in the dust storm.

Met officials say the dust storm hit the capital around 4.30 pm, with Safdarjung recording a maximum speed of 59km/hr at 4.45 pm. A drizzle was reported around parts of the capital around 5.30 pm and the intensity increased by 7pm, during which the temperature fell to around 25 degrees, officials said. Operations were also affected at the IGI airport during the time and 15 flights were diverted.

Delhi had also received light rain on Sunday night due to favourable local conditions like high temperature and moisture. The humidity levels on Wednesday, meanwhile, were between 38-66%, met official said.

Earlier in the day, Delhi had recorded a maximum temperature of 38.3 degrees Celsius , while the minimum was 27 degrees Celsius—two notches above normal. The regional met has forecast cloudy skies on Thursday and the maximum likely to be around 36 degrees Celsius. A drizzle may occur in some parts.

Superstorm Rajasthan> Jharkhand, Telangana kills 129/ 2018

From The Times of India 4 May 2018

Superstorms across India kill 129, shatter homes and lives

Major Damage In UP, Raj; 46 Dead In Agra

Severe thunderstorms lashed many parts of the country on [the night of 2May 2018], killing at least 129 people in the last 24 hours and leaving a trail of destruction, with houses flattened, trees uprooted and electricity poles in disarray. The maximum devastation occurred in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the storms claimed 112 lives.

Uttar Pradesh reported 73 deaths, of which 46 were in Agra district alone. As many as 39 people died in Rajasthan, followed by seven in Telangana, four in Uttarakhand and two each in Jharkhand and Punjab.

The fury of unusually strong winds and heavy rains lasted for up to three hours in many places.

“Concrete houses came down like packs of cards one after the other. Trees, streetlights and whatever stood taller than a few feet were flattened by the winds. We took out victims from debris of houses and ferried them to hospitals on motorcycles,” Narendra Sharma, the SHO of Kheragarh police station in Agra district, told TOI after spending the night in rescue ops.

With 24 deaths, Kheragarh tehsil in Agra near UP Rajasthan border bore the maximum brunt of the storm in the district.

Deaths were reported from other parts of the state too. These included three each in Bijnor and Kanpur Dehat, two each in Saharanpur, Hamirpur, Mirzapur and Kanpur city; and one each in Bareilly, Pilibhit, Chitrakoot, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Mathura, Amroha, Banda, Sitapur, Sambhal, Etawah, Allahabad and Rampur. Nearly 90 people were injured in the state. The UP government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each for the families of the deceased.

In Rajasthan, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria put the toll at 33 on Thursday, but unofficial sources said it had climbed to 39 by evening. Over 200 people have been injured in the storm which affected Bharatpur, Dholpur and Alwar districts.

After a horrifying night, Thursday morning brought in a host of woes as people woke up to disruption in water and power supply. As many as 12,700 electricity polls were uprooted and 1,523 transformers damaged in the three districts. More than 50,000 trees were destroyed.

The Rajasthan government rushed ministers to the three districts on Thursday while chief minister Vasundhara Raje is scheduled to visit the affected areas of Bharatpur on Friday. “Seventeen persons have died in Bharatpur, nine in Alwar and five in Dholpur district due to the dust storm,” Kataria said.

In Uttarakhand, casualties were reported from Almora, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar districts.

In Telangana, heavy rains triggered by a cyclonic circulation killed seven people across the state. Strong winds plunged many areas in Hyderabad into darkness. Deaths were reported from Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Warangal districts.

In Punjab, two people were killed in Patiala city when the boundary wall of an underconstruction house collapsed on them. The victims died on the spot within minutes.

In Jharkhand, two women were killed in Sahibganj district when they were struck by lightning.

Why the storm was so intense

From The Times of India 4 May 2018

‘Perfect conditions’ gave deadly edge to storms: Met

More Intense Than IMD Had Predicted

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

Multiple factors lined up perfectly to cause the widespread thunderstorms and dust storms that claimed more than 110 lives across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand on Wednesday, Met officials said. At several places, the storms were more intense than predicted.

While squalls and dust storms are a common April-May phenomenon in north India as a result of high heat, what gave Wednesday’s storms more destructive power was their association with a western disturbance (WD), Met officials said.

“The thunderstorms coincided with a passing WD which provided moisture and unstable conditions, leading to storms across a wide area,” said K G Ramesh, director general of India Meteorological Department. The department had issued alerts for “isolated heavy thunderstorms” in the region with wind speeds of 40-50kmph. But winds reportedly reached higher speeds at several places.

“This can happen due to local gustiness within the zone of precipitation. These are accentuated by land features which enable winds to reach higher speeds due to tunnelling effect. Generally, the winds were within the range we had forecast” Ramesh said.

“Four weather conditions need to come together for thunder squalls to take place. One, there should be adequate heating of the land; two, there must be moisture in the air; three, the atmosphere should be unstable and, four, there must be a triggering mechanism,” said M Mohapatra, DGM, IMD.

All these conditions were met on Wednesday, Mohapatra said. “Surface temperatures were high and moist easterly winds were blowing up to Himachal Pradesh. The atmosphere was unstable and a cyclonic circulation over Haryana and its neighbourhood provided the trigger for the storms,” he said.

See also

January weather in India <> February weather in India <> March weather in India <> April weather in India <> May weather in India <> June weather in India <> July weather in India <> August weather in India <> September weather in India <> October weather in India <> November weather in India <> December weather in India