Babatpur Logs Wednesday Evening Thunderstorm Rain; Thursday Opens With Light Rain

Official METARs from Varanasi’s Babatpur airport (VEBN) show Wednesday 23 September turning wet through the evening, with Thursday morning 24 September still carrying light rain under low broken cloud.

Through Wednesday afternoon the station sat in haze and broken cloud, temperatures near 30–31°C and visibility around four kilometres. By about 5:30 pm IST the report shifted: scattered and broken layers, a few cumulonimbus, and a temporary group calling for thunderstorm-rain with visibility near 1.5 km. That was the bridge into the wetter evening.

From roughly 6:00 pm IST the observations logged light rain, visibility near two kilometres, and a temperature drop to about 26°C. An hour later light rain continued with a few cumulonimbus still in the group. Around 8:00 pm IST the station reported light thunderstorm-rain, visibility about 2.5 km, temperature 25°C, and the same low scattered and broken layers under an overcast higher deck. Through late evening the rain notation eased back to mist or light drizzle groups, with visibility holding near 2.5 km and temperatures around 26°C.

Thursday’s available morning observation, timed near 9:00 am IST, kept the wet theme. Wind was about easterly at ten knots. Visibility was 2.5 km in light rain. Cloud groups showed scattered at about 800 feet, broken at 1,800 feet, a few cumulonimbus near 3,000 feet, and an overcast higher layer. Temperature and dew point were both in the mid-20s, with QNH near 1007 hPa and no significant change coded.

Those numbers matter for the airport road, Cantt corporation routes and anyone timing a ghat visit after the recent flood recession. A 2–2.5 km visibility group in light rain is usable for most city driving but slows two-wheelers on slick stretches and can delay short-haul flights when cumulonimbus cells sit over the field. The Wednesday evening thunderstorm-rain tempo is the sharper hazard window: brief heavy showers, gusts and lightning risk around the terminal and approach path.

The VEBN feed does not replace the India Meteorological Department’s East Uttar Pradesh subdivision warning, which on Thursday’s issue flags heavy rain today and very heavy rain on 25–26 September. METARs are what the instruments recorded; the IMD table is the official look ahead. Together they give Banaras a tighter picture than either product alone.

Passengers using Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport should allow extra time for the airport road when light rain and low cloud sit on the morning sheet. Railway travellers between Cantt and the city do not get a named delay from these METARs, but wet evenings are when local road jams build fastest around the station approaches.

This sheet is distinct from the earlier Babatpur piece covering Tuesday’s storm tempo and Wednesday’s misty open. Wednesday evening’s rain and thunderstorm-rain groups, plus Thursday morning’s light rain under broken low cloud, are the new instrument story for the desk.

As always, a later METAR can change the picture within an hour. Readers should treat the 23–24 September sequence above as the recorded strip through Thursday morning and check the live feed before heading to the airport or planning outdoor work under the simultaneous IMD heavy-rain flag.