City Records Lowest Apr Temp In 42 Years

Lucknow: Thunderstorm and cool winds plummeted the mercury in the city on Thursday. The maximum temperature recorded was the lowest for the month of April in past 42 years. Weather is expected to remain pleasant with possibility of one or two spells of rainfall till Sunday.
People woke up to strong winds and partly cloudy sky in the morning, but the weather changed dramatically around 8am. Dense clouds enveloped the city, leading to darkness and followed by an intense thunderstorm and rainfall with lightning.
The minimum temperature recorded in the wee hours of Thursday was 23.4 degrees Celsius, 3.7 notches above normal.
However, due to change in weather conditions, the maximum temperature could not cross the 25.9 degrees Celsius mark, which was 11 units below normal. Such low day-time temperatures were earlier recorded in April 1983 when the maximum temperature was 20.6 degrees Celsius.
While total 13 mm rainfall was recorded at the state met observatory at Amausi, the wind velocity during the storm was recorded between 30-40 km per hour.
"The previous thunderstorm the city witnessed was in Jan this year. The change of weather on Thursday was due to a large amount of energy released due to two weather factors comprising a western disturbance over Afghanistan and cyclonic circulation over Madhya Pradesh," said Mohammad Danish, senior scientist at the state met department.
He said in the past 54 years, the lowest maximum temperatures in the month of April were recorded in 1971 (24 degrees Celsius), 1983 (20.6), 2013 (26.3), 2023 (26.8).
Danish predicted that maximum and minimum temperatures on Friday would be around 33 and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively, with possibility of thunderstorm accompanied by lightning and gusty winds.