Lucknow: A thunderstorm accompanied by strong winds swept across the city on Saturday evening, promising to bring brief relief from intense heat and humidity that gripped the state capital over the past several days. The storm hit the city around 10:30 pm and lowered temperatures by a couple of degrees.“The thunderstorm was generated locally due to high humidity and temperatures, hence, its impact was not very significant, but a fresh western disturbance is expected to impact most parts of the state including Lucknow from Sunday evening and it will trigger thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds of 40-50 kmph along with light rainfall,” explained Mohammad Danish, senior scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC).The change in conditions due to WD, however, will also bring temporary relief as the weather will turn harsh after the WD fizzles out. The major relief will come only when the monsoon arrives. The met officials hope that the WD may revive monsoon currents, said officials of the India Meteorological Department.The monsoon is currently weak and stalled near Motihari in Bihar for the past one week. The normal date of monsoon arrival in UP is June 18 and in Lucknow, June 23. It is already behind schedule and it may take 3-4 more days before it enters UP.Meanwhile, earlier, during the day, the city reeled under scorching conditions. The maximum temperature settled at 41.9 degrees Celsius, 5.8 degrees above normal, while the minimum was recorded at 29.5 degrees Celsius, 3.1 degrees above normal. Relative humidity fluctuated between 36% and 70%, making the weather severely uncomfortable.Across the state, Prayagraj and Agra emerged as the hottest places, recording a maximum temperature of 43.2 degrees Celsius each followed by Kanpur, Fatehpur, Banda and Fatehgarh with 42.6 degrees Celsius each. Temperatures remained well above normal across most districts, with several stations recording departures of 5 to 7 degrees Celsius above the seasonal average.
