Gusty winds, light rainfall provide relief to scorched Delhi NCR

Light rain and gutsy winds in the evening on Thursday provided a much needed relief to residents of Delhi-NCR reeling under a continuous, extended heat wave with mercury climbing down by almost 10 degrees Celsius by day end.

West Delhi and southwest Delhi received more rainfall - because of which flight movements were affected at the airport - compared to central and east Delhi areas.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed the change to the Western Disturbance as a trough roughly in the Western Himalayan Region.

Palam Ovservatory near the IGI Airport recorded 1 mm rainfall till 11.30 p.m.. Rest other areas had only light rainfall.

Twitter user, Nagarjune Dwarakanath, posted a photo of Delhi airport from inside his flight and said: "Thunderstorm with rain, right in the middle of Delhi airport. Stuck on taxi way. The strong wind sheer is so much that flight is shaking. Parking breaks are finding it difficult to hold the plane still."

It was more of strong winds, including a dust storm, for several areas in central and east Delhi. D Shrivaibhav, a resident of east Delhi, said: "I was headed to south Delhi in the evening when I encountered strong winds. Apart from my area, there was very light rainfall in Central Delhi too."

The day started with a cloudy sky and a pleasant morning but progressively it turned into a clear sky, Safdarjung - base station for Delhi - recording maximum tem at 39.4 degrees Celsius.

Except Noida and Palam, rest all stations across Delhi NCR recorded maximum temperatures above 40 degreess Celsius.

The IMD had also predicted thunderstorm with light intensity rain and gusty winds with speed of 30-40 kmph over and adjoining areas of Aurangabad, Rewari, Bawal, Nuh (Haryana), Najibabad, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Khatauli, Sakoti Tanda, Hastinapur, Chandpur, Greater Noida, Meerut, Sikandrabad, Aligarh, Moradabad, Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), and Bhiwadi, Tizara, Kotputli, Alwar, Laxmangarh, Nadbai (Rajasthan).