Cloudy weather in Patna on Monday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

A dust storm, accompanied by rain and winds, brought relief to Patna residents on Sunday night. Weathermen claimed that a collision between easterly and westerly winds had caused the squall.

The storm, however, affected power supply in many parts of the city.

Residents of Sri Krishna Puri, Nageshwar Colony, Anandpuri, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Patliputra Colony, Kankerbagh, Jakkanpur and Rajabazaar witnessed load-shedding for hours after the storm.

A senior Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) officer said the storm caused some damage to power supply lines in the western parts of the city.

“In Patna, some 33KV and 11KV feeders suffered snags because of the squall. But the problems were fixed within a few hours after the rain and the electricity supply was restored by today (Monday) morning,” said a senior BSEB officer.

Powers snags aside, the cold gusty winds that lashed the city post midnight brought a pleasant change for the citizens.

“The heat had forced me to use my air-conditioner for the past one week. However, after last night’s shower, the weather is very pleasant. The morning has also been nice and I enjoyed a cool ride to my office on Frazer Road in the morning,” said Buddha Colony resident Puja Singh.

The temperatures also registered a drop on Monday. While the maximum temperature registered on Sunday was 34.2°C, it came further down to 31.5°C on Monday.

The pleasant weather is expected to continue for a few more days. The Met department officials predicted partly cloudy sky.

Patna Met department director Ashish Sen told The Telegraph: “Squalls like this are very common at this time of the year. Moist easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal collide with dry westerly winds in states like Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand. The frequencies of such squalls have, however, gone down in the recent years.”

He added: “This year, though, there have been quite a few squalls in Patna and its adjoining areas since March-end.”

Sen also said: “In the beginning of April, the maximum temperature was a couple of notches higher than the normal temperature for this season. This caused a lot of inconvenience to the people. However, April 4 onwards, the maximum temperature has been below normal. Therefore, summer has not been very harsh yet.”

Agriculturists said the rain in April is good for crops like jute and pulses, which have already been sown in different parts of the state.