Chandigarh

Residents in a city in India were surprised by a hailstorm on Thursday, with hailstones reaching 1 cm in diameter. The last time the city experienced hail was in April 2023. The hailstorm lasted for about 20 minutes and was accompanied by heavy rain, causing power disruptions and traffic congestion in some areas. The India Meteorological Department had issued a hail warning prior to the storm. The maximum temperature dropped significantly, while the minimum temperature rose slightly.

Residents were in for a surprise on Thursday as the windy weather gave way to a hailstorm, which left roads covered in white. Joyous residents took to social media to share snapshots of the rare occurrence.

The last time the city saw hailstones was April 20, 2023. The hailstorm on Thursday continued for around 20 minutes, and the hailstones were about 1 cm in diameter, which is significantly larger than last year when the diameter of the hail was 3 mm.

Speaking about the phenomenon, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Chandigarh, scientist Shivinder Singh said, “February has one of the most conducive conditions for hail formation in the region. For it to hail, the temperature needs to be low enough and there needs to be a strong system to keep the frozen water droplets suspended in the air long enough for them to get larger. When it rains in the winter, droplets usually freeze, but melt as they fall.”

The IMD had issued a hail warning on Wednesday as well.

As per data, there were 0.2 days on an average annually every February between 1991 and 2020 when hail was recorded in the city. This implies that on an average, there is one day, every five years in February when it hails.

IMD Chandigarh director AK Singh said, “This is because of an active western disturbance (WD) in the region. This is the first active disturbance that the region has seen this year.”

While a fresh WD is expected on February 3, more rain can be expected. However the system is not likely to be as strong.

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27.6 mm rain, highest since 2013

Around 27.6 mm rain was recorded throughout the day, the highest for a February day since February 6, 2013, when 30.1 mm rain was logged, as per the IMD. While 1 mm rain was recorded till 8:30 am, the hailstorm started around 11:10 am and continued till 11:30 am, after which it continued to pour. Incidentally, in 2023, no rain was recorded in February.

Day temperature falls by 5 degrees

The maximum temperature fell from 20.2°C on Wednesday to 15°C on Thursday, 6 degrees below normal.

This is the eighth coldest February day since 1954, while the coldest February day was on February 4, 2022, when maximum temperature was 12.8°C.

Because it started raining at night, the minimum temperature rose from 10.6°C on Wednesday to 12.5°C on Thursday, 3.7 degrees above normal.

Over the next three days, the maximum temperature will remain around 18°C, while the minimum temperature will remain around 9°C.

The rain and hailstorm led to power disruptions in different sectors of Mohali, including a three-hour outage in Phase 5, an hour-long power cut in Phase 7 and outages in Sectors 69, 80 and 82.

The rain also worsened road conditions in Mohali, causing significant traffic congestion on the Ambala-Zirakpur road, resulting in hours-long snarls. There were long queues on the VIP road in Zirakpur as well.

In Chandigarh, traffic jams were witnessed at Tribune Chowk, Kisan Bhawan Chowk in Sector 35, Sector 22/17 light point, Sector 46/47 dividing road and Kalagram light point. However, these were promptly cleared by the traffic cops on duty. A traffic police official deputed at Traffic Helpline number 1073 said they received some calls of minor traffic jams in parts of city that were cleared soon.

This article is sourced from Hindustan Times.

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