THUNDERSTORM accompaniedbyheavyrainbatteredDelhi overnight,disruptingflightoperations, uprooting trees and electricity poles, and causing waterlogging in several areas while bringingrelief from stifling heat. The sudden change in weather led to a sharp drop in mercury with the city recording a minimum temperature of 19.8 degrees Celsius, 6.9 notches below the normal. Sources said as many as 49 flights,including17international ones, were diverted at the country’s largest IGI airport here due to the inclement weather.

 

The weather department had issued a red alert on Saturday night warning about an approaching thunderstorm cell from thewest and northwest. It had forecast severe thunderstorms or dustraising winds accompanied by frequent lightning and gusty winds under its influence. DUST STORM AFFECTS NORMAL LIFE IN PARTS OF RAJASTHAN;2KILLEDASWALL COLLAPSES: DUST storms and rain affected normal life in parts of Rajasthan with a woman and her daughter killed in the Khairthal-Tijaradistrictasawall of their house collapsed. Electricity supply was disrupted in parts of Bikaner, Sikar and Jhunjhunu as the storm uprootedelectricpolesandtrees late on Saturday night. In Bhiwadi town of KhairthalTijara district, Sumaya (21) and her one-year-old daughter were buried alive after a wall of their house collapsed, police said, adding her husband has been hospitalised after being injured in the incident. The storm uprooted several electric poles and hoardings fell ontopowerlines,haltingsupply.

 

KERALA BATTERED BY INTENSE RAINS: HEAVY monsoon rains battered Kerala on Sunday, causing widespread damage as houses were inundated, low-lying areas flooded, and agricultural lands ruined, with trees uprooted across the state,includingonethatcrashed onto a moving train in Thrissur. Officials said that a man was killed when an uprooted tree fell on him while he was riding a scooter in Villyappally, Kozhikode. In another incident, two teenage siblings were electrocuted by snapped wires after a tree fell onto an electric post while they were fishing in a stream in Kodanchery, in the same district, they said.