Dust storm hits Delhi-NCR, disrupting traffic, flights and Metro services

The Met department has forecast dust storms, thunderstorms and rain for a week in Delhi.

Delhi witnessed a sudden dust storm on Friday, followed by light rain in few areas, bringing down the temperature to 28.4°C.

A sudden storm hits Gurgaon on Friday. The storm dipped the visibility, leading to vehicles plying on the streets coming to a standstill momentarily, while pedestrians rushed to seek shelter. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The Met department has forecast dust storms, thunderstorms and rain for a week.

The storm dipped the visibility, bringing traffic to a standstill, while pedestrians rushed to seek shelter.

Arrivals and departures at Delhi airport delayed up to one hour due to sudden change in weather. Nearly 24 flights have been diverted out of Delhi due to bad weather, according to ANI.

People on Twitter complained of a half-hour delay in Metro service.

MeT officials said they haven’t seen such high-velocity dust storms in recent years.

“The wind speed of the dust storm reached 98km per hour around 5.50 pm from around 81 km per hour at 5.30 pm. We have not seen such high velocity dust storms in Delhi in recent years,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist with the regional weather forecasting centre in New Delhi.

A view of Chandni Chowk during dust storm in Old Delhi on Friday. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

While the speed of a cyclone ranges from 62 kmph to 82 kmph, the speed of a severe cyclonic storm ranges between 89 kmph and 117 kmph.

The maximum temperature on Friday was 36.6°C while the minimum temperature was 22.5°C.

Met officials said a combination of weather systems — strong winds from the west, a pressure gradient over Delhi-NCR, two cyclonic circulations over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and a trough passing through central India — triggered the storm.