For the second consecutive day, thunderstorm and rain hit many parts of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday evening. After a daylong bright sunshine in Lucknow, the sky turned overcast around 6 pm and a spell of shower began around 8 pm.
The maximum and minimum temperatures in Lucknow were 32.5 and 18.8 degrees Celsius. The forecast for Monday is partly cloudy sky becoming mainly clear. The maximum and minimum temperature will be around 33 and 19 degrees Celsius respectively. Lucknow airport recorded 17 mm rain from Saturday 8.30 am to Sunday 8.30 am while average rainfall in the district in the last 24 hours was 5.5 mm only.
Kanpur was hit by hailstorm again on Sunday evening, a day after a severe storm killed three people there, brought down around 300 trees and damaged or uprooted 130 electricity poles across the city. Saturday’s storm, accompanied by heavy rain and high winds, caused widespread damage over roughly three hours. Wind speeds were clocked at around 40 kmph.
The city received approximately 3.8 mm of hail. Makeshift structures collapsed in several areas across Kanpur city. Sunday’s spell added a further 3 mm of hail, compounding the damage to an urban infrastructure already stretched by the previous day’s destruction.
The back-to-back storms have left large parts of the city without power, with electricity poles snapped or uprooted in several localities. Fallen trees blocked roads and disrupted movement in multiple areas.
Dr SN Sunil Pandey, weather scientist at CS Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, said a western disturbance was responsible for the unsettled conditions. High moisture levels during the pre-monsoon period significantly raise the probability of hailstorms during evening hours, he said. The pattern was likely to persist, he warned, with powerful hailstorms expected to strike the city several more times through the month.
The consecutive spells have also raised concerns about crop damage in districts surrounding Kanpur, where wheat harvesting is currently under way and farmers have already reported heavy losses from earlier hailstorms across Bundelkhand and other parts of the region.
Weather remained fine in Aligarh and Hathras for most part of Sunday but rain lashed the city in the evening with reports of hailstorm from rural areas.
After major rain on Friday night, weather was fine in most districts of Braj on Saturday but it again turned rough on Sunday. High speed wind turned to storm in Mainpuri as day proceeded and a farmer died in village Kalyanpur within limits of Bewar police station of Mainpuri when a tree fell on him on Sunday.
Meanwhile in Santosh Nagar locality of Firozabad, a man identified as Dharamveer fell from roof of his house during storm on Friday and died late on Saturday during treatment.
An extensive damage was caused because of rain and hailstorm in Mainpuri and number of electricity poles fell because of high speed winds. Another spell of unseasonal rain is likely from April 7 onwards in the state induced by another western disturbance, a met department official said.
From Saturday 8:30 am to Sunday 8:30 am, the state received 2.6 mm rain. One of the meteorological stations in Kanpur city recorded 35.6 mm while Kanpur IAF in the city recorded 33.2 mm rainfall and yet another station in that city noted 30 mm rain. Overall average rainfall in Kanpur city was 20.6 mm, Banda 13.4 mm, Ayodhya 10.5 mm. Haidargarh met station at Barabanki recorded 25 mm rain while average rain in the district was 6.3 mm, Akbarpur and Kanpur Dehat recorded 18 mm rainfall while overall average of Kanpur Dehat was 8.4 mm.