97 trees uprooted, flights hit: Strong winds, thunderstorms wreak havoc in Delhi

The IMD had said on Saturday morning that a cloud mass lay over northeast Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, western Uttar Pradesh and southern Uttarakhand.

IMD scientist RK Jenamani explained that the current western disturbance, which has been affecting northwest India from May 23 onwards, is the strongest one of this year and has triggered various types of severe convective weather over northwest India, including dust storms and squalls over Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and Haryana.

After what was a moderate to severe thunderstorm on Saturday morning, Municipal Corporation of Delhi received reports of 97 trees having fallen at locations including CR Park, East Patel Nagar and Lodhi Colony. A tree was also uprooted in East of Kailash.

Last summer, Delhi had seen an instance of several trees being uprooted after a thunderstorm.

On trees being uprooted, Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist in-charge of the biodiversity parks programme in the city, said how vulnerable the trees are to wind velocity depends on a few factors.

“It depends on the age of the tree. Plantation also makes a difference. Three-storey plantation with top, middle and understorey can lessen the impact of wind velocity on the top canopy, thereby reducing chances of midway breaking and uprooting of trees. The type of vegetation also matters. Trees that are not meant to be on the central verge, like silk cotton, peepal, and gular trees, are being planted. There is very little soil there and root anchoring and spread will be poor,” he said.

Concrete around a tree can also hinder tree root growth – an NGT order from 2013 states that concrete within a 1 metre radius of trees is to be removed.

The thundershowers led to a few instances of power disruptions. These disruptions were primarily due to damage to overhead electricity lines, poles and transformers caused by uprooting of trees and breaking of their branches, the officials said. The combination of wet and swinging tree branches close to overhead cables is a safety hazard and can cause short circuits, sparking and power outages, said a discom official.

A BSES spokesperson said discoms were on high alert to deal with the situation and pressed quick response teams into service. Power supply was restored quickly in most of the areas. It took a little longer than usual to restore electricity in some areas as tree cutting and removal is a time-consuming process, he added.

More rain ahead

The IMD has issued a forecast for cloudy skies, light rainfall and thundershowers on Sunday and Monday as well, with a yellow alert or a warning to ‘be aware’ for both days. Another western disturbance is likely to affect northwest India from May 29 onwards. This will be the fifth western disturbance that is affecting the region this month, Srivastava said.

Till 8.30 am on Saturday, the Safdarjung weather observatory recorded 15.7 mm of rainfall. With this, the total for the month stands at 77.7 mm so far, well above the ‘normal’ or long-period average of 30.7 mm for the month. From 2015 onwards, this is the second highest amount of rainfall for the month of May – Delhi recorded 144.8 mm in May, 2021.

Palam recorded 18.8 mm of rainfall till 8.30 am on Saturday, while the Ridge near Delhi University recorded the highest amount of 33.2 mm.

Rainfall brought the maximum temperature down to 33.2 degrees Celsius, seven degrees below normal for this time of the year, while the minimum temperature was 19.3 degrees, also seven degrees below the normal.

The maximum temperature is likely to be 35 degrees on Sunday and Monday, going by the IMD forecast.