Flights coming to Hyderabad from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Visakhapatnam were diverted to other cities as a thunderstorm hit the city and suburbs on Thursday evening.
Parts of Hyderabad and surrounding districts experienced light to moderate rains along with hailstorms and lightning.
While the sudden change in the weather provided citizens relief from the sweltering heat, the gusty winds also uprooted trees and disrupted the movement of vehicular traffic in a few places.
The bad weather also forced the airport authorities to divert the flight from four cities.
Flights, which were to land at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), were diverted to Bengaluru, Vijayawada, and Nagpur, an airport spokesperson said.
The Delhi-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Bengaluru while the Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight was diverted to Nagpur. The Mumbai-Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad flights were diverted to Vijayawada.
Kondapur, Quthbullapur, Jeedimetla, Dilsukhnagar, Chaitanyapuri, Abdullahpurmet, Kothapet, and other areas received moderate rainfall. Several areas including Kukatpally, Hydernagar, Nizampet, and Malakpet saw rains with hailstorms.
Rains also lashed parts of the old city including Barkash, Chandrayangutta, Falaknuma, and Bahadupura.
Hailstorms also led to traffic jams in a few places. Many areas in neighboring Sangareddy districts experienced gusty winds with lightning. Motorists had a tough time in areas like Patancheru, Ramachandrapuram, BHEL, and Ameetpur.
Rains came as a welcome relief for people reeling under intense heatwave conditions. Adilabad was the hottest place in Telangana with the mercury rising to 43.3 degrees Celsius. Nizamabad recorded a maximum temperature of 41.9 while Hyderabad experienced a maximum temperature of 40.2, lower than Wednesday’s 41.4.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a trough from Rayalaseema to south Tamilnadu is now running from north interior Karnataka to the Comorin area at 0.9 km above mean sea level, which could trigger light rainfall and thunderstorms in some parts of the state and areas across Hyderabad.
The IMD has also issued a thunderstorm and lightning alert for places including Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Adilabad, Nirmal, Medak, Vikarabad, Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar, Jogulamba, Narayanpet, and Kamareddy. The alert is for the next five days
