The season's sixth Nor'wester hit Jamshedpur, Ranchi and several other places on Friday resulting in widespread lightning and thundershowers.
Two storms originated from the Chhotanagpur plateau region. The first storm was triggered at Latehar in north-west Jharkhand.
It covered places like Koderma, Hazaribagh and Ramgarh before hitting the capital. The wind notched a speed of around 40 Kmph, the storm lasted for a few minutes followed by thunder showers.
The second storm originated from Lohardaga and travelled through Simdega, Khunti and Seraikela-Kharsawan district before reaching Jamshedpur around 5 pm.
The steel city and its adjoining areas encountered the Nor'wester around 5.15 pm. The wind speed was around 45 kmph. It lasted for about 45 minutes followed by moderate showers.
The storm resulted in snapping of power supply in Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) command areas.
Chaibasa in West Singhbhum also experienced the summer saviour storm at the same time while Ramgarh and Khunti felt a two-minute snap squall.
Jamshedpur recorded around 35 mm of rain while Chaibasa in West Singhbhum got 20 mm of rain. Ranchi and its ajoining areas received about 2 mm of rain while several other places recorded light showers.
IMD's Ranchi Met Centre confirmed the tempest was a Nor'wester.
"The Nor'wester was triggered by a cyclonic circulation over north-eastern Madhya Pradesh. A low pressure trough over Gangetic Bengal also helped in heavyoisture incursion into atmosphere,” said a duty officer at Ranchi Met Centre.
A weather analyst at the Patna Meteorological Centre said, "Our reports show that the storm has hit different places in Jharkhand with wind speed between 40 to 50 kmph. Rain and storm is also likely to hit several pockets of central, northern and southern Jharkhand in next few days," he said.
Trees fell at several places including Jamshedpur due to the impact of the high intensity storm.
Darkness descended at Jamshedpur and several other parts of Kolhan around 5 pm. Cars and other vehicles had to switch on the head lights.
Weathermen said reports of hailstones also came from several parts of the state including Jharkhand.
