While rain and strong winds provided much needed relief from the terribly hot weather in Gujarat, it also uprooted several trees, roofs of houses of slum dwellers, and brought down mobile towers and roadside election hoardings.
The thunderstorm-hit districts included Ahmedabad, Amreli, Gandhinagar, Junagadh, Rajkot, Kutch and Patan. But besides thunderstorm and unseasonal rains, hail also struck at several places, such as Chotila in Surendrangar, Dehgam in Gandhinagar and some parts of Kutch and Rajkot.
While on one hand hailstorm affected the famous kesar-aam crop of Gujarat, two person, aged 24 and 14 lost their life in Rakhiyal district in Ahmedabad, as a tree fell on them. Reports of more such incidents of death and injuries are pouring in from many other cities of Gujarat.
According to latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India rain figures in Gujarat looked like this. Ahmedabad – 11.4 mm of rain, Rajkot – 5.6 mm and Baroda – traces of rain.
As rain occurred towards the later part of the day, i.e. post 6 pm, the maximum temperature had reached its highest point, recording above 39⁰C in most cities. However, it pulled down the minimums, which settled around 20⁰C, two to four notches below the normal average.
Further forecasts suggest, Gujarat could see more such thundery activity today and the weather could turn cloudy and rainy once again towards the evening. It will however, become dry from tomorrow onwards.
“Thundershowers in pre-monsoon season are normal but weather events such as this are not very common. Enough moisture from the Arabian Sea, high temperatures, apt for heating up the atmosphere and formation of cyclonic circulations are responsibly for such incidents”, says G.P Sharma of Skymet Meteorology Division.
“The normal rainfall amount for Ahmedabad for the month of April is 2.7 mm. Therefore, this proves the rarity of such events”, added Mr. Sharma.
Photo by ddinews.