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28-11-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ AHMEDABAD: At least 24 people have been killed by lightning and intense rain and hailstorms in India, officials said.
The weather damaged houses and killed livestock across western Gujarat state.
Storms are unusual in Gujarat during winter, meteorologists said, and the fierce downpour caught many off guard.
Flash floods and lightning strikes kill thousands of people in India each year. Scientists are warning that rising global temperatures are fueling a surge in extreme weather events.
Rising land and sea surface temperatures warm the air above and make more energy available to drive thunderstorms from where lightning emanates.
Rain and hailstorms were expected to continue in western India on Monday.
At least 18 of the 24 deaths were attributed to the lightning strikes, officials said in a statement late on Sunday.
Gujarat state was hit by heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms and hailstorms on Sunday and Monday, with some areas receiving up to 144mm (5.7 inches) of rain in 24 hours, media reported citing state government data.
The collision of three weather systems over Gujarat caused the lightning strikes, according to Manorama Mohanty, head of the Indian Metrological Department in Ahmedabad.
“These are the easterly winds flowing from the Arabian Sea, the Western Disturbance over the Western Himalayas and the Cyclonic Circulation over South Gujarat,” Mohanty told media.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths, adding that local authorities were engaging in relief work.
Farmer Yogesh Patel, 42, died on his farm when lightning hit a tree he was sheltering under in heavy rain.
Shantilal Patel, a close family friend, told media that Patel is survived by his three children and a wife.
“He was in his farm below a tree when the lightning hit him. When we saw his body, it seemed that the mobile phone in his left pocket of shirt was blasted due to lightning which killed him on the spot,” she said.
In India, lightning strikes killed more than 100,000 people between 1967 and 2019, according to official data. This is more than a third of fatalities caused by natural hazards during this period.
During intense storms across India’s western state of Gujarat, lightning strikes killed at least 18 people on Sunday, officials told media.
The news agency reported that many were caught off guard as such heavy rainstorms are not expected in the western state during winter.
Although flash floods and lightning strikes kill scores of people across India every year, experts have warned that extreme weather events would increase over time due to global warming.
Gujarat state authorities, in a statement late Sunday, said that around 20 people were killed in the heavy rains with 18 of them losing their lives to lightning. Moreover, around 40 animals were also killed in these events.
In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths.
