Dark clouds gather over Jamshedpur. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, May 26: The season’s fifth Nor’wester cooled down a sweating steel city and its adjoining areas today.

“It’s a Nor’wester. A squall with a wind speed of 56km per hour lashed the steel city this evening. There was thunderstorm and lightning too,” confirmed P.D. Sen, a senior meteorologist at the local weather office.

“The easterly winds created conducive conditions for a Nor’wester in Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana regions,” added Animesh Chanda, the director of Patna Meteorological Office.

Till 5.30pm, the steel city received 23.8mm of rainfall, taking the figure in the past 24 hours to 25.6mm and bringing down the day’s maximum temperature from 43.4°C to 41.7°C. The minimum temperature was normal at 25.4°C.

But high humidity pushed up the discomfort index. Apart from Jamshedpur, the humidity level in areas like Seraikela, Ghatshila and Chandil touched 95 per cent.

However, Ranchi and its adjoining areas missed the Nor’wester by a whisker. “Though the state capital witnessed gusty winds this afternoon, it did not transform into a Nor’wester due to unfavourable wind patterns,” said a weatherman.

Met officials predicted that the Celsius is likely to dip by a couple of more degrees in the next 24 hours. “Several places across the state are likely to witness rain or thundershowers in the next 24 hours,” said a weather analyst at Patna Meteorological Office.

The storm disrupted train movement between Tatanagar and Ghatshila. Railway officials said that an overhead wire between Dalbhumgarh and Ghatshila snapped.

“The Up line is affected. We hope to restore normal traffic by late evening,” said Tatanagar station manager A.K. Agarwal.