A pall of darkness descended on lucknow late on Tuesday afternoon as a sudden dust storm hit the State capital. People were taken aback by the unusual phenomenon and by such a sudden change in weather.
Joy Banerjee, a school student who had just stepped out of his home for tuition only to encounter the sudden dust storm, told The Pioneer, “It was pitch-black outside… as if it was 8 pm. I got scared and returned to the safety of my home.”
The darkness lasted for nearly 30 minutes. Employees of Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl), whose morning shift ends at 4 pm, were greeted by gusty winds and darkness when they came out of their offices.
“It was a strange feeling. It had not happened in my life. I had never seen such a scenario. I though the end was imminent,” AK Nigam, 59, who works in HAl, said.
First moderate velocity winds laden with dust made the air hazy, and then came the heavy downpour. For the city’s commuters, it was a double whammy. “I was driving at that time and it was difficult handling the vehicle in the dust storm as the visibility was very poor,” said a motorist. Heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning brought down the temperature in the city. It was an hour before things returned to normal. Met Department Director JP Gupta said that it was a local dust storm which was caused by the increase in temperature due to the presence of heavy clouds for the last few days.
“This is a local phenomenon which has occurred because of the increase in temperature due to the presence of a cloudy weather,” he told The Pioneer. On Monday, the minimum temperature had increased by eight degrees.
Gupta said that the city will receive light rains on Wednesday also. “The State capital will witness light rain and the cloudy weather because of the presence of a cyclonic circulation over Madhya Pradesh which was earlier prevailing over South East Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
The city recorded a maximum temperature of 29.5 degrees Celsius which was 2 degrees above normal and a minimum of 16.6 degrees Celsius which was 6 degrees above normal.