Blown away in 3 minutes - Rain relief for swelter city

(From top) A powerful storm accompanied by heavy rain on Friday evening destroyed hoardings and blew away scaffoldings in various parts of Bhubaneswar. The sudden rain caught people unawares and caused waterlogging in many parts of the city. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 29: A powerful thunder squall hit the city for precisely three minutes, leaving behind a trail of uprooted trees, flattened hoardings and snapped electric wires.

Several areas were plunged into darkness soon after the storm that raged from 4.45pm to 4.48pm, according to the weather office. Accompanied by rain, it reached a wind speed of 87km per hour. The city recorded 14.8mm of rain within those three minutes, said weather officials.

The squall that followed muggy weather with day temperature hovering at 38 degrees Celsius left the city in complete mess with civic authorities struggling to clear the roads of uprooted trees and billboards.

Their task was made all the more difficult by the rain and the gale that disrupted power supply in several areas.

The destruction was quite visible in areas such as Shahid Nagar, Master Canteen and Laxmi Sagar.

In all these areas, the roads were littered with uprooted trees and hoardings, while at certain places electricity poles were also damaged.

On the brighter side, the storm immediately cooled the weather in the capital bringing the people much needed relief from the sweltering heat.

“Everything has two sides. On the positive side it has certainly brought relief from the heat,” said Manas Satpathy from Nayapalli.

Last month a storm had hit several areas of the state including Bhubaneswar.

Three persons had lost their lives in the gale that hit parts of Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts.

Officials described the storm as Kalbaisakhi and said that it’s cooling effect might not last long. “The weather conditions may change in the next few days. These phenomenon are almost always temporary,” said an official.

Weather officials said that phenomenon like Kalbaisakhi or thunderstorms are generally welcome during the summer as they had a cooling effect on the environment.

“Sustained high temperature during the summer means absence of thunderstorms and rain.

“So, the more of such storms, the better it is for the people, though one would wish there was no destruction,” said an official.

Sources said the only other phenomenon that could cool down the weather during summer was low pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal which, for some reasons, had not been as frequent this time as it used to be a few years ago.