Strong winds with thick dust blew relentlessly across the city before giving way to thunder and lighting and then finally some rain. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

New Delhi: Day virtually turned into night as darkness in the form of heavy clouds invaded the National Capital on Friday in the middle of the afternoon.

Strong winds with thick dust blew relentlessly across the city before giving way to thunder and lighting and then finally some rain. The average citizen was caught unawares in the middle of the sudden dust storm.

The storm brought down the normal visibility to a considerable low, affecting the flight schedules and disrupting the road traffic.

The flights arriving in and departing from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were delayed up to one hour, while 24 flight had to be diverted out of Delhi due to the bad weather.

The national capital had lately been experiencing soaring temperatures, and the light drizzle that followed the storm came as a welcome relief to the residents.

Here's how the Twitterati reacted to the sudden weather change!

"#DustStorm forces #Delhi to standstill.. #DelhiMetro #BlueLine services disrupted, 24 flights diverted," tweeted one user.

Another expressed their woe over the flight getting diverted, "Dust storm in Delhi apparently. On a #JetAirways from Lucknow got; redirected to Varanasi... As usual, tiny arguments inside aircraft: some feel they've been told by their family members that other aircrafts are landing so why not Jet ??."