GUSTY WINDS SHOWERS HAIL STORM: A very unlikely picture in May
| Date :08-May-2024 |
Staff Reporter
High intensity rains lashed parts of city along with hail, thunderstorm and lightning, which provided relief from scorching summer heat to the people on Tuesday evening. Partly cloudy weather was prevailing since morning and it led to high levels of humidity in the afternoon. Despite cloudy weather, the summer heat dominated in the afternoon but around 4 pm, thunderstorm started with gusty winds which turned into heavy rain in some parts of the city whereas some parts also witnessed hailstorm. In last two days, the maximum temperature of Nagpur city was 43.0 C and 42.6 C. Whereas, due to cloudy weather and rains in the evening on Tuesday, the temperature dropped by 4degree Celsius as city reported temperature of 38.1degree Celsius.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted thunderstorm, hailstorm, moderate rains with lightning on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Weather Department predicted, “Thunderstorm accompanied with lightning, gusty wind (speed reaching upto 40-50 kmph) and hailstorm are very likely to occur at isolated places over Vidarbha during May 7 to 9.” Weather Department also issued ‘yellow alert’ all over Vidarbha for the next 3-4 days and Nagpur will also witness the same weather in the evening. A cyclonic circulation lies over northeast Madhya Pradesh and neighbourhood 1.5 km above mean sea level. Whereas a trough from South Jharkhand to West Madhya Pradesh now runs from North Interior Odisha to southeast Rajasthan across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh at 0.9 km above mean sea level. Due to these weather developments, the weather will change in coming days.
On Tuesday, Nagpur witnessed 4.2 mm rainfall whereas Chandrapur witnessed 11 mm, Bramhapuri 7.2 mm and Gondia 1 mm. Akola once again witnessed highest maximumtemperature in Vidarbha with 43.7C, followed by Washim (43.4C), Wardha (43.0C), Amravati (42.8C), Yavatmal (42.5C), Chandrapur (42.4C), Buldhana (40.2C). Brahmapuri, Gadchiroli, Gondia and Nagpur recorded the maximum temperature below 40.0 degree Celsius mark on Tuesday due to cloudy weather and rains.
South Nagpur residents spend sleepless night due to rains
For citizens in South Nagpur it was yet another instance of night out thanks to power failure that ruined their ‘good night.’ An unprecedented rise in residential colonies and lack of adherence to norms of leaving out open spaces for utilities is resulting in harrowing time as citizens are now accustomed to power failure as it is now more or less a daily episode. The intervening night to Monday and Tuesday was again a long night as people were forced to face the brutal hot and humid atmosphere as over strained system of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) once again went phut. It was again a time for citizens to stay awake and fight out the loosing battle with mosquitoes on one hand and sultry weather on other.
Past midnight as the storm took centre stage, the over burdened MSEDCL lines snapped. While it has been a routine affair and hence people initially thought the power might come back after a while. But that was not the case to be and the wait continued till the dawn and post noon. To make matters worse in Jai Durga Layout again the newly installed transformer burst leaving citizens in soup. Incidentally about two years back, similar drama had played out and citizens went without power for nearly two days as that time also transformer had failed. So its quite surprising that transformers are repeatedly failing in the area as it is now densely populated and it seems, MSEDCL needs to upgrade it system to avoid such incidents in future.
On other hand several localities along Inner Ring Road in Manewada and adjoining areas too faced horrid times due to non availability of power. Similar reports came from Manish Nagar area also where to power went off for a long period. Some of the outer area faced extreme rains and hence it might have played some role in triggering the outages. The MSEDCL teams fanned around trying to rectify the fault but it could not succeed in rectifying it within time. Only after the day break the technicians could find the reason for power failure and went on securing one area after another. So in morning also the areas that went without power, the citizens had to face severe inconvenience. Finally power was restored only in the afternoon on Tuesday.