IMD forecast: Delhi wakes to rain-cooled morning; thunderstorms, gusty winds likely across these Indian states

New Delhi began the day with cool and refreshing weather on Thursday morning as the overnight rains across the city continued into the early hours of the day. The rainfall recorded across the city has brought the temperature down, providing respite from the rising mercury levels over the past few days.According to the India Meteorological Department, the city is expected to have generally cloudy skies with spells of rain, thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds today. The wind speed is expected to be between 30-40 kmph, gusting to 50 kmph. In addition, one or two spells of light to moderate rain are expected to occur during the day. The weather department has also predicted a decrease of 3-4 degrees Celsius in the maximum temperature across northwest India. However, the current spell of weather is not restricted to Delhi alone, as the IMD has issued an India-wide alert for the possibility of thunderstorms, rainfall, and gusty winds across the country.Northwest India, including states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, is expected to see scattered to fairly widespread rainfall associated with thunderstorms and gusty winds (40-50 kmph) over the next two days. Along with that, hailstorms have also been predicted at isolated places, especially across the plains and the Himalayas.Western Himalayas: States like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are expected to see widespread rain and snowfall, including isolated instances of heavy rain and snowfall.Eastern and Central India, including states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh, will experience active weather conditions. The IMD has issued a warning for light to moderate rain, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusting winds of 30-50 kmph, to occur in these regions within the next few days. Some regions, such as Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, will experience instances of heavy to very heavy rain, and thundersqualls will occur in places such as Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal.Fairly widespread rain, accompanied by thunderstorms and gusting winds of 30-50 kmph, will occur in the Northeast region within the next few days, and lightning will continue to occur throughout the region.On the other hand, scattered to widespread rainfall with thunderstorms and gusty winds is also expected over South Peninsular India, which includes states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Kerala.In the case of Western India, states like Maharashtra and Gujarat are expected to experience isolated rainfall activities like thunderstorms and lightning. In addition, strong winds and hailstorms are also possible. Overall, the IMD has issued a warning of the possibility of the following weather activities affecting the country: Thunderstorms, lightning, gusty winds, and intermittent rainfall are likely to occur over a large area of the country. It has been recommended that the public across the country be cautious, especially during the onset of thunderstorms.