After heatwave-like conditions for the past few days, Lucknow as well as parts of both Western and Central Uttar Pradesh witnessed heavy thunderstorms, strong winds and clouds that almost blackened the sky on Thursday morning, with reports of hail storms in areas touching the Nepal border. Officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) informed that the sudden change of weather was due to the colliding of Westerly and Easterly winds coming from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea, and the weather is expected to continue for three days. While providing relief from the heatwave-like conditions, the storm and heavy rain is expected to damage both unprotected harvested crops as well as standing crops in the case of hail storms. Officials said that the actual assessment of the loss and damage to crops would take time. On Thursday morning, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a quick survey of the damage to the crops and asked officials to conduct field-visits for the same. “We had predicted this weather change a week ago. It started from the Terai region yesterday (Wednesday). Today, the intensive storm and rainfall is the result of a confluence of moisture coming from Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea through Eastern and Westerly winds. This might not be a continuous phenomenon but occasional spills like this are expected to continue for next three days and will be strong,” explained an IMD official.
