Dust storm accompanied by rain also hit Chandigarh and its surrounding areas in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, bringing down the temperature. (Express Photo by Sahil Walia)
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a fresh warning on Friday about a possible thunderstorm accompanied with squall likely to hit four states today – West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, reported PTI.
Meanwhile, the death toll due to thunderstorm and lightning in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan has reached 124 in two days, confirmed the ministry. At least 73 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh, 35 killed in Rajasthan, eight in Telangana, six in Uttarakhand and two in Punjab.
Weather experts on Thursday had estimated that wind speeds touched 100 kilometres per hour, even as they predicted another dust storm to hit parts of UP and Rajasthan due to cyclonic circulation formation in the region. Most of the casualties were caused by lightning, which struck at many places after the dust storm settled down on Thursday.
In UP, Agra district was the worst hit, while Bijnor, Bareli, Saharanpur, Pilibhit, Firozabad, Chitrakoot, Muzaffarnagar, Rae Bareli and Unnao were also affected. In Rajasthan, the dust storm struck Bharatpur, Alwar and Dholpur districts.
Squall and rains also hit Delhi on Wednesday, with wind speeds reaching 59 km per hour in the evening. The maximum temperature, before the squall started was 36.4 degrees Celsius. By the time the rain ended four hours later, the temperature had dropped to 31.4 degrees Celsius. However, no damage to property or casualties were reported.