A dust storm has swept parts of Delhi NCR on Sunday morning, severely affecting visibility in some places.

A massive dust storm swept parts of Delhi-NCR on Sunday morning, severely affecting visibility in some places.

Strong winds accompanied by light rainfall and hail in some areas brought respite to the national capital which has seen mercury levels nearing 40 degrees in the last few days.

According to The India Meteorological Department (IMD), the change in weather was caused by a western disturbance — a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerly winds — which brought light rain, thunderstorm and dipped temperatures in the city.

Kuldeep Srivastava, IMD’s regional forecasting centre head in Delhi, said, “We had forecast this three to four days ago. It was recorded in Himachal Pradesh yesterday, and from there has affected parts of Uttarakhand, northern Punjab and Haryana and the NCR region. It will now move towards Uttar Pradesh.”

Palam, in southwest Delhi, recorded wind speed of 60 kmp/h on Sunday morning. While the IMD would release exact figures later in the evening, Srivastava said temperatures in Delhi would have dropped by four to five degree Celsius and it is likely that hail would have been recorded in parts of the NCR.

Squally winds from the north-west direction with a speed of around 74 kmp/h were recorded close to 11.40 am in Delhi-NCR. Temperature in the region was brought down from 35 degrees to 28 degrees Celsius, as per the IMD.

On Saturday, the national capital Delhi recorded the maximum temperature of 40.9 degrees Celsius, the weather body said.