Relief, but a wreck: Squall hits NCR hard, leaves 5 dead

Time of India

21-05-2025

Noida/Ghaziabad/New Delhi: A fierce dust storm ripped through the region on Wednesday evening, with wind speeds gusting up to 79 kmph, followed by heavy rainfall, hailstorms, and thunder, providing much-needed relief from the scorching heat that saw the "feels like" temperature soar to 50.2 degrees Celsius at noon.
The extreme weather condition, which started around 8.30pm, was due to a southward-moving convection. It lasted less than an hour, but in that hour five people were killed, several trees and signage were uprooted or damaged, and motorists faced a harrowing time due to traffic snarls.
A 60-year-old woman and her 4-year-old grandson died during the storm when a shed crashed into them from the terrace of a 21-storey highrise at Migsun Ultimo in Greater Noida's Omicron 3.
The two were rushing back into the society after the squall caught them off guard. Ravindra Yadav, a resident of the society told TOI that the boy was on a bicycle and his grandmother was watching over him.
"The incident happened near Sun 4 tower just as the woman and her grandson were about to enter the tower ans go to their sixth-floor flat. The shed, which covers the shaft of the tower, broke due to the strong winds and fell on them.
The woman died on spot, she was decapitated, while the child was rushed to hospital with serious injuries. Later, according to his father, the child passed away as well," said Yadav, who is a neighbour of the family.
In Ghaziabad, a tree came crashing down on a biker, killing him on the spot near Hapur Chungi intersection. Motorists nearby had a narrow escape. Two persons were also killed in Delhi. At Nizamuddin, a man with disabilities died when a light mast fell on his tricycle, while at Gokalpuri, a man died when a tree fell on him.
As the wind speed peaked around 9.30pm in the two NCR cities—touching 63 kmph in Noida and touching 70 kmph in Ghaziabad—two massive signboards collapsed near Golf Course metro station and Sector 142, severely hampering traffic movement on the Noida expressway during the evening rush hour.
Trees uprooted on the busy Film City and Sector 18 roads also added to tailbacks. Low visibility due to the dust storm had a ripple effect.
Noida DCP (traffic) Lakhan Singh Yadav said traffic cops were deployed at multiple points on the expressway to streamline traffic. "Cranes and hydraulic machines had to be brought in to remove the hoarding from the expressway," he said, adding that traffic movement normalised on DND Flyway, Film City, stretch near sectors 62, 18 and 52 metro stations by 9.30pm.
In Ghaziabad, a signboad collapsed on CISF Road in Indirapuram, while a tree fell on the road leading to Hindon Civil Terminal from Mohan Nagar, disrupting traffic movement in the areas.
"Iron mesh erected on both sides of the Hindon barrage bridge, which connects Indirapuram with Sidharth Vihar, was uprooted in the storm, leading to a tailback," Saurav Jha, a resident of Gaur Sidhartham, who was on his way back home from the gym, said.
GMC officials said that they received multiple reports of tree fall cases from Hindon elevated road, Duhai and Muradnagar.
Metro operations, meanwhile, were affected on both the Delhi Metro's Red Line corridor and Noida Metro's Aqua Line.
A statement issued by DMRC said, "Due to the sudden windstorm, there was some damage to the OHE or external objects falling/coming onto metro tracks at certain locations. As a result, metro services are affected and being regulated on these affected sections on the Red, Yellow, and Pink Lines near Shaheed Nagar, Jahangirpuri, and Nijamudin stations, respectively. Efforts are being made to remove these objects and restore the OHE on an immediate basis to restore normalcy.
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Noida metro services were briefly suspended due to the hailstorm.
At least 10 flights were diverted to Jaipur and Mumbai, while over 50 flights were delayed. Power supply was also disrupted in large parts of the NCR.
The intense rain spell and hailstorm led to a sudden fall in temperature by up to 14 degrees Celsius. The temperature at 7.30pm read 37 degrees Celsius, but an hour later, the mercury had fallen to 23 degrees.
The weatherman, however, hasn't predicted a respite, with both temperatures and humidity set to increase in the next few days. The feels-like temperature reached 50.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday against 49.6 degrees Celsius the previous day.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 40.7 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal, on Wednesday though slightly reduced from the 41.8 degrees of Tuesday.
The minimum temperature was 30.2 degrees Celsius, which was the highest this month, against 28.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
The humidity oscillated between 42% and 68%, which was slightly lower than a day earlier yet uncomfortable.
IMD has issued a yellow alert for hot and humid conditions till Friday. On Thursday, Noida's maximum is likely to hover between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius. Air quality in Noida's Sector 116, which deteriorated to 301 at 6pm after the dust storm, improved to 190 after the thundershowers.