A short, violent storm swept across Varanasi soon after 6 pm on Monday, bringing down trees and power lines in several parts of the city. At Babatpur, three incoming flights that could not land were sent on to Lucknow on the advice of air traffic control.
Monday had been a clear, bright day. Then, with little warning, thunder and lightning rolled in, and winds of around 50 km/h pushed through the city and the surrounding villages, followed by a light drizzle. The worst of it lasted roughly half an hour before the weather settled again.
The Cantonment area took the heaviest knock. More than six trees came down there, and in a number of residential colonies tin sheds were torn off rooftops. Electricity poles were left leaning at angles in some places, and snapped wires cut the power supply.
Fallen trees and debris slowed traffic, while people caught out on the roads and along the ghats hurried to whatever shelter they could find. In the rural parts of the district, too, trees fell and poles were bent.
Up in the air, the timing could hardly have been worse. Air India Express flight IX 1540 from Bengaluru reached Varanasi airspace at its scheduled 5:55 pm but was not given clearance to land, and after circling for some time it was diverted to Lucknow. IndiGo's 6E 6596, also from Bengaluru, was due at 5:45 pm and came overhead about half an hour late, at around 6:15 pm, only to be sent to Lucknow as well. The third was IndiGo's 6E 501 from Hyderabad, which also could not land.
Poor visibility and the absence of landing clearance were behind all three diversions, made on air traffic control's advice for safety. Once conditions improved, the three aircraft took off from Lucknow between about 8:30 and 9 pm, landed safely at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport and then left for their onward destinations. They reached Varanasi roughly two and a half hours behind schedule, and passengers waiting at the terminal to board those same aircraft had a long, uncomfortable evening. No statement from either airline on the diversions was available.
Diversions at Babatpur can just as easily run the other way. Late last month, it was Varanasi that took in traffic when two Ranchi-bound IndiGo flights were diverted here because of bad weather at Ranchi. Monday showed that an airport receiving diverted aircraft one week can be sending its own away the next, depending on where the clouds sit.
The thermometer told a milder story than the wind. The city recorded a maximum of 33.8°C and a minimum of 23.5°C on Monday. Atul Kumar Singh, a scientist at the state's regional meteorological centre, attributed the sudden change to a western disturbance and said similar weather was possible through this week.
That sits a little awkwardly with how the week began. The monsoon withdrew fully from Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, nights have started to turn cooler, and the city outlook a day earlier had promised mainly clear skies, with morning mist at Babatpur. A storm that arrives and leaves inside half an hour gives people very little time to get off the road.
The disturbance was not confined to the city. According to reports from neighbouring districts, heavy rain, strong winds and hail moved across the Varanasi, Mirzapur and Azamgarh divisions through the afternoon and evening. Hail is said to have damaged standing paddy in the Mahul area of Azamgarh, and a tree fell at Rasulpur, blocking movement for villagers. No official estimate of crop damage has been released.
Varanasi has been here before this season. On a Saturday morning late in September, wind and rain left fallen trees blocking roads in Sarnath, Chandmari and Rohania and kept clearing crews busy for most of the day. Monday's damage was spread more thinly, but the pattern of trees, wires and traffic snarls was familiar.
For anyone flying out this week, the practical advice is simple: check the flight's status with the airline before leaving for Babatpur, especially for evening departures and arrivals, which is when Monday's storm struck. A diversion elsewhere can leave a departing aircraft hours late even when the sky over Varanasi has cleared.
For the colonies where tin roofs flew off and poles were left leaning, the forecast is a secondary concern. The storm lasted about thirty minutes, and the clean-up it left behind will take longer than that.
