JOIN USFive people, including two women, were killed in heavy rain and gale that lashed parts of Uttar Pradesh, throwing life out of gear and affecting air and vehicular traffic.
The Met office said heavy rain hit several districts of east and central UP in the last 24 hours, bringing down the temperature sharply.
Rain lashed Lucknow, Varanasi, Gonda, Ballia, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Gonda, Bareilly, Kanpur and other districts.
While the state capital received around 10 mm rainfall, the downpour in Ghazipur district was nine mm, sources said here.
Strong winds swept away hoardings and uprooted trees in many places. Reports said five people died in house collapse as a result of rain in Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Barabanki districts.
Alert issued
An alert has also been sounded in districts on the Indo-Nepal border as they could receive heavy downpour in the next 24 hours, sources said. The Met office said there will not be changes in the weather for the next 24 hours.
Several aircraft had to be diverted to Delhi after they failed to land at the Amausi airport here due to poor visibility.
Road traffic was also affected after trees were uprooted at many places, reports said.
Temperatures dipped by around six degrees at several places. Muzaffarnagar recorded a minimum temperature of 15 degree celsius while Lucknow recorded a drop of six degrees in the day temperature, the weather office said.
Experts said that strong winds could adversely affect the standing paddy crops. At many places paddy crops were flattened by wind blowing at a speed of around 40 kmph. They said that the sudden change in weather was due to the effect of cyclone Hudhud.