The India Meteorological Department has issued a warning of thunderstorm accompanied with squall and hail in large parts of northern and eastern part of the country today.

It issued an amber-coloured alert, indicating severe weather for parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, western Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.

The Delhi government has decided to shut all second shift schools starting in the afternoon today. Last night a dust storm, with a wind speed of 70 kilometres per hour, hit the national capital followed by a squall, bringing down the temperature. The traffic police has asked commuters to check weather conditions before travelling while the Delhi Metro too has decided to exercise extreme caution in running of trains in the wake of the warning.

The Haryana government has cancelled leave of all officials in civic bodies across the state. According to the Met Department, thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds, is very likely at isolated places over Punjab, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, Bihar, western Madhya Pradesh, east Uttar Pradesh and East Rajasthan, Coastal and South Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.