Most north Bengal districts and the neighbouring state of Sikkim experienced a sudden bout of thunderstorm on Thursday.

The rainfall that started in the early morning continued till late afternoon at some places. The storm uprooted trees, which blocked traffic on roads.

Since early morning, it had been raining in Siliguri, Darjeeling, Alipurduar, Kalimpong, Cooch Behar and North Dinajpur and some parts of Sikkim.

The weather remained partially gloomy in Malda and South Dinajpur.

The change in the weather brought relief to people during the ongoing dry spell, but claimed a life.

Dipak Kumar, a 35-year-old jawan of the Border Security Force (BSF), was on duty at the India-Bangladesh border in the Bandargach area of Phansidewa block of Siliguri subdivision. While Kumar was patrolling, he was struck by lightning.

“His colleagues and local people rushed him to the Phansidewa rural hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead,” said a source.

The heavy wind uprooted a tree on the Bagdogra-Panighata Road. Although there were no reports of damage or casualties, traffic was disrupted along the stretch for more than four hours. Foresters from Bagdogra reached the spot and cleared the road around 9am.

Similarly, traffic was interrupted for some time as a tree fell along the Jalpaiguri-Haldibari Road at Berubari. Also, some trees fell on roads at Sitalkuchi of Cooch Behar.

In due course, the roads were cleared.

Sources in the regional Met office in Gangtok said there was a forecast of more rainfall across north Bengal and Sikkim during the next few days.

“The weather will remain unchanged and rough for the next 72 hours across north Bengal and Sikkim. There will be moderate rainfall with gusty winds in most places,” said a weather expert.

In some places, there will be thundershowers, with gusty winds blowing at 40 to 50km per hour, sources said.

The sudden rainfall has also brought cheers for the tea industry. Tea planters based in north Bengal said the rainfall would considerably help in the production of tea leaves.

“The new season has started, and there was a dry spell. In Alipurduar, it has rained after a gap of over five months. We had to depend on irrigation, but in the past 24 hours, it rained around three inches (76 mm),” said Chinmay Dhar, the manager of Makjherdabri tea estate that is in the outskirts of Alipurduar town.

“There had been rainfall also in the Terai, in Jalpaiguri, and in the Darjeeling hills. This will help the north Bengal tea industry,” he added.

A small tea grower based in Jalpaiguri said that a long dry spell leads to a decline in the yield and also leads to pest attack.

“The rainfall will also help in curbing pest attacks. Also, most of the small tea growers own smaller holdings and cannot afford to spend on irrigation. They are also relieved, and we hope there will be some more rainfall in the coming days,” said the grower.