New Delhi: At least 60 people have been killed in separate incidents of lightning strikes in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, according to the data from the state relief commissioner’s office on Thursday.
According to the report, at least 43 were killed in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday and Thursday. Around 20 people were killed, and 40 others were injured in lightning strikes across several districts of Bihar also during this period.
Meteorologists say that such severe lightning incidents are unusual during monsoon months. They are common during the pre-monsoon and the post-monsoon.
“These areas were dry and hot before. It appears that there was a lot of ground heating and then as the monsoon trough started shifting northward, moisture incursion caused a sudden development of a lot of convective clouds and multiple lightning incidents,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president, climate, and meteorology at Skymet Weather.
He added, “...This is very unusual during the monsoon. We see such large-scale lightning during pre-monsoon months or when the monsoon is withdrawing.”
Col (retd) Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Lightning Resilient Campaign India convener, said sudden changes in the weather triggered enhanced uplifting of air resulting in large amounts of lightning occurrences.
{{/usCountry}}Col (retd) Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Lightning Resilient Campaign India convener, said sudden changes in the weather triggered enhanced uplifting of air resulting in large amounts of lightning occurrences.
{{/usCountry}}He added that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecasted it in advance as the monsoon trough was evident. The IMD had warned on Thursday afternoon about the accumulation of convective clouds that is likely to lead to cloud-to-ground lightning over central and northeast India.
Referring to the data from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Srivastava said there were about 75,000 incidents of lightning strikes over India on Thursday.
He said that the IMD, based on ground observations put the number at 240,000 incidents of lightning strikes on Thursday not only over India but also in its regional areas, including the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.
Meanwhile, the IMD has warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall spells over southwest Peninsular India and heavy rainfall over northeast and adjoining east India during the next five days.