Weather update: IMD predicts rain, thunderstorm alert for these states. Check full forecast

The weather department has issued a yellow alert in the national capital, Delhi for May 11 and May 12. The India Meteorological Department has forecast cloudy skies with light rain, thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds for both days. 

Several parts of Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas witnessed a massive duststorm at late night on May 10 with gusty winds up to 50-70 km/h. Some areas of the national capital also reported power cuts, while some flights had to be diverted.

Many took to social media to post images and videos of the effects of the storm. Trees were seen rustling ferociously and vehicles navigating through traffic as the storm swept through the national capital.

The weather conditions would improve from May 13 and are likely to remain clear till May 16 as per the IMD forecast. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 39 and 29 degrees Celsius on May 11.

The weather forecast highlighted light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds over Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh until May 13 and over Rajasthan until May 12. Additionally, hot and humid weather conditions are set to prevail over coastal areas of Gujarat till May 14.

“A cyclonic circulation lies over northeast Assam, another cyclonic circulation over east Bangladesh and a trough runs from east Assam to north Odisha in lower tropospheric levels," the IMD press release said.

It has predicted light to moderate showers in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura till May 16. The weather conditions will be accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and squally winds.

IMD predicted light to moderate showers accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and squally winds for West Bengal and Sikkim on May 12. Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha are expected to receive rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds.

Additionally, torrential rains are set to impact Karnataka and Kerala on May 12 and 13, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on May 13, and Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on May 12.

The weather department issued another hailstorm alert for Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand for May 12.

An orange alert has been issued for West Bengal on May 11 with expectations of heavy rainfall.

Warmest April ever, says WMO

The world experienced the warmest April ever and the eleventh consecutive month of record-high temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Friday. Sea surface temperatures have been record high for the past 13 months, it said.

The WMO attributed this El Nio — an unusual warming of waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean — and the additional energy trapped in the atmosphere and ocean by greenhouse gases from human activities. A similar streak of record high temperatures happened previously during the strong El Nio event of 2015-2016.

The average temperature of 15.03 degrees Celsius in April was 1.58 degrees Celsius higher than the month's average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period, the WMO said citing data from the European climate agency – Copernicus Climate Change Service. It was 0.67 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for April and 0.14 degrees Celsius above the previous high set in April 2016.

The record temperatures were accompanied by high-impact weather events including intense heat in many parts of Asia, drought in southern Africa and extreme rainfall in the Arabian Peninsula. Persistent heavy rainfall in East Africa and southern Brazil has worsened in the first week of May, leading to devastating and deadly floods. The high number of extreme weather and climate events (including record daily and monthly temperatures and rainfall amounts) are more likely in a warmer world, WMO climate expert Alvaro Silva said.

The sea surface temperature in several ocean basins, including in the tropical belt, continues to be record high, releasing more heat and moisture to the atmosphere and thus exacerbating conditions, he said. There were big temperature differences within Europe in April. Outside Europe, temperatures were mostly above average over northern and northeastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, northwest Middle East, parts of South America, and most of Africa.