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Lightning strikes kill at least 60 in Bihar, UP

The state relief commissioner’s office released data on Thursday that showed at least 60 persons have died in different lightning strike occurrences in parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The study states that on Wednesday and Thursday, at least 43 people died in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh. During this time, lightning strikes occurred in numerous districts of Bihar, resulting in about 20 fatalities and 40 injuries. Such intense lightning occurrences are uncommon during the monsoon months, according to meteorologists. They are typical in the pre- and post-monsoon seasons.

“Previously, these regions were hot and arid. According to Skymet Weather vice president of climate and meteorology Mahesh Palawat, “it appears that there was a lot of ground heating and then as the monsoon trough started shifting northward, moisture incursion caused a sudden development of a lot of convective clouds and multiple lightning incidents.” “This is very unusual during the monsoon,” he continued. Such widespread lightning occurs in the months leading up to the monsoon or as it is ending.

Lightning Resilient Campaign India convener Col (retd) Sanjay Kumar Srivastava stated that abrupt weather changes led to increased air elevating and a high frequency of lightning strikes. The monsoon trough was visible, he continued, so the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted it beforehand. On Thursday afternoon, the IMD issued a warning regarding the build-up of convective clouds that could result in lightning striking the ground from clouds over central and northeast India.

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According to Srivastava, there were over 75,000 lightning strikes over India on Thursday, citing statistics from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). According to him, the IMD estimated that there were 240,000 lightning strikes on Thursday in India and its surrounding regions, such as the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, based on ground observations. In the meantime, for the next five days, the IMD has issued warnings of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall spells over the southwest Peninsular India and heavy rainfall over the northeast and adjacent east India.