What caused Delhi Noida hailstorm?

Preeti Taneja

Entrepreneur | Posted on 8-Feb-2019

This was possibly the first Delhi Noida hailstorm when social media is in the mainstream. The last time this region saw the hailstone-surprise was almost a decade back. So, quite obviously, there was a rush on Twitter of ecstatic users sharing their joy with nature's miraculous sight.

Here are several images of the aftermath of Delhi Noida hailstorm shared on Twitter:

The temperature in and around NCR dropped to 15 degrees Celsius. A total of 32 domestic and international flights got diverted out of Delhi. Railway services were hit, too, with 16 Delhi-bound trains getting delayed by as much as six hours.

As for what caused Delhi Noida Hailstorm, a fresh western disturbance is said to be the biggest reason. However, the Met department attributed a host of other reasons as well.

Head of Delhi IMD regional centre, B.P. Yadav, said "A number of factors contributed to making it severe. There was a confluence of winds coming from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea which met over northern India. At the same time, jet streams, which are strong winds, were passing over the northern plains and helped in deep cloud formation at the lower level."

The low temperature, cold winds and western disturbance (originating in the Mediterranean region), combined, brought shower and Delhi Noida hailstorm. The Met department has predicted that the rain will continue for a day or two.

Thanks to this change in weather, the Delhites saw some relief from the constant polluted hazardous air quality. At the time of writing this, the Air Quality Index in New Delhi is hovering around 151. While it's still "unhealthy", at least it's better than 300AQI.